It’s hard to be sustainable as a small business; waste is cheap, and reusable or sustainable materials are not. With a mission to provide a space where skateboarding,
cafe-culture and live music can come together in an eco-friendly space, Pilllar Forum Cafe and Commodities (yes, there are three L’s in the name) remains undaunted by the cost of operations. Buoyed by a strong startup and a lot of community support, the cafe and skateboard shop has expanded into the space next door to their location on the corner of 23rd and Central avenues to create more room for a community gathering space and live music venue.
Corey Bracken founded Pilllar as an online skateboard store in 2020, though he has wanted to create a joint storefront and restaurant space for a long time. He said he doesn’t think many people in the skateboarding community are talking about the climate, an issue he feels very strongly about, and he wanted to create a space that could bring together skateboarders and resources for climate action.
At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, skateboards exploded in popularity as people scrambled for recreational activities they could do safely during the nationwide shutdown. While the circumstances were horrific, the bump in sales for Bracken’s fledgling company gave him the momentum he needed to get his operation off the ground in a bigger way. He opened up the Forum Cafe portion of his business in 2022, filling the coffee shop-shaped void left on the block after the loss of Anelace Coffee a couple years prior.
“It [the surge in business] gave me the confidence to take that next step,” he said. “We can be a pillar of the community, and the industry!”
Bracken said that there are three pillars to Pilllar’s mission statement: businesses, government and people. To Bracken, it’s important for businesses to adopt sustainable practices. Pilllar itself is a “climate positive” company, meaning they offset their carbon emissions by enough to have a net positive impact on removing carbon emissions from the atmosphere. However, he said that planting trees and composting coffee cups won’t have enough of an impact by itself unless the government takes meaningful action on climate issues. Pilllar aims to create a community that allows for education and organization in that regard.
Pilllar Forum Cafe serves as a joint storefront for Bracken’s skateboards, a coffee shop, an art gallery and now, a music venue. The cafe began hosting live music shortly after it opened. An impromptu show thrown together in the dining room went really well, and Bracken decided to start booking musicians regularly. The cafe’s dining room has played host to over 100 DIY shows since autumn 2022, but it was cramped, and the space wasn’t really meant for live music.
“Every night, we were moving all the tables back and taking down the PA … and bands just kept on booking!” said Bracken, explaining the need to expand into a space that could accommodate their musical guests. “We already kind of proved that people want to come out here to play shows.”
The Pilllar Forum expanded its music venue into the vacant insurance office next door early this year. They debuted their new stage space on the weekend of March 2-3 with the show “Rage and Reset,” so dubbed by a staff member who commented that the show should be “a rager” on night one, and then reset with chill music the next morning. The show featured 18 bands over the course of the weekend.
When he opened up shop, Bracken hoped that Pilllar would become not just a business, but a meeting place (a forum, if you will) for the skateboarding community to get in touch with climate action resources; however, the struggle of getting the cafe and music venue up and running forced the climate part of Bracken’s vision to take a back seat. Now that the business and community parts have gotten off the ground, he wants to spend more time partnering with local climate groups. The cafe will also start hosting a regular “climate happy hour” geared towards creating a space for discussion and education on climate issues on the 1st Thursday of every month.
More information on Pilllar Forum’s climate action and upcoming events can be found online at www.pilllar.com
RJ Vocal (left) sat and chatted with store owner Corey Bracken (right). (Alex Schlee)
Barista Gabby Hopkins prepared a latte. (Alex Schlee)
Mark Perkins opened up the “reset” day of Rage and Reset. (Alex Schlee)
Loon Booster took the stage after RJ Vocal. (Alex Schlee)
Loon Booster shared a laugh in the green room backstage. (Alex Schlee)
Pilllar skateboard decks. (Alex Schlee)
RJ Vocal’s solo performance. (Alex Schlee)