The Toronto-area eatery invested in improved ventilation before reopening after stay-at-home orders. Their business is better than ever, proof that paying attention to indoor air quality is vital during an ongoing pandemic.
Opened in 1993 in Mississauga, Ontario, the Apricot Tree Café has built a loyal customer base who love its European-influenced menus, from salads to schnitzel. Owned and operated by Austrian immigrant Franz Hochholdinger and his wife Esther, the café has grown from selling desserts on the basement level of a Toronto suburb shopping plaza to a prime 4,200-square-foot space offering breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, however, the local favorite has seen its reputation grow beyond Mississauga as a leader in promoting cleaner, safer air quality for diners and staff. By improving its filtration and monitoring systems, the restaurant makes the dining experience safer by reducing the spread of airborne viruses like SARS-CoV-2.
Upon entering the restaurant, potential diners can check out real-time measurements via a QR code or tablet display that can help them make informed decisions about eating indoors, something many people continue to avoid during the ongoing pandemic. The café’s Aranet4 CO2 meter and air particulate sensor, in the middle of the dining room, also show real-time data. Four Aeroex IRIS-400 air purifiers, using HEPA filters, run from opening to closing.
Hochholdinger installed these measures in the autumn of 2021, in anticipation of Ontario’s stay-at-home orders ending. He has since become an outspoken advocate for cleaner indoor air quality, posting regularly about the café’s efforts and their impact on the business’s Twitter/X account.
Before the pandemic, calls for cleaner air focused on limiting outdoor air pollution from fossil fuel emissions. Now, Hochholdinger is part of a larger international movement advocating for cleaner indoor air, alongside organizations as varied as Chicago’s Clean Air Club, Harvard University’s Healthy Buildings Program, the nonprofit Corsi-Rosenthal Foundation, Long Covid advocacy groups, and the closer-to-home Ontario School Safety group. He is one of the few business owners, however, who is so vocal about cleaner indoor air.
“Very few businesses or restaurants did anything like what we did,” said Hochholdinger. But as he often notes on Twitter/X, we refuse to drink dirty water, so there’s no reason that we should breathe dirty air.
Since improving the café’s air quality, neither he nor Esther has been sick despite often working 14-15 hours a day. And at a time when Restaurants Canada, a nonprofit that advocates for the restaurant industry, estimates that 62% of the nation’s restaurants are losing money or breaking even, the café’s profits continue to grow. Hochholdinger said that they had their best year on record in 2023 and are up 20% in revenue so far this year. Customers from as far away as New York City and Los Angeles have come to the café for its clean air, according to the guest book.
“There’s 7,000 restaurants in Toronto … but they came here to eat,” said Hochholdinger. “Something must be working.”
Key points you should know:
- The Apricot Tree Café in Mississauga, Ontario has become a leading advocate for better indoor air quality, thanks to the efforts of its owners, Franz and Esther Hochholdinger.
- Franz Hochholdinger commissioned an air audit in the summer of 2021 to prepare for the café’s re-opening. A team of professionals that included an atmospheric scientist, an HVAC (Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning) contractor, an industrial hygienist, and an occupational health physician measured CO2 levels, air flow, and other factors and recommended the addition of air filters and monitoring systems.
- Hochholdinger purchased four mobile HEPA filters to place around the café as well as monitors to measure CO2 levels, humidity, and other factors that can increase the risk of airborne transmission. While the risk is never zero, the café’s air quality efforts have attracted some Covid-conscious diners to eat indoors.
- Since installing those filters, Hochholdinger has seen his air quality improve, according to both the monitors and the personal experience of himself and his staff. Staff have noticed they are less congested when working than when outdoors or even at home.
- During a time when Canada’s restaurants are struggling financially, The Apricot Tree Café has continued to grow every year. According to Hochholdinger, the restaurant had its best year on record last year and anticipates at least a 20% growth in profits this year. Promoting indoor air quality, in other words, is good business as well as good health.
Auditing the air
Improving the café’s air quality never occurred to Hochholdinger until the pandemic, and it wasn’t until he connected with Lawrence Gold that he learned about the possibility of doing an air audit. Gold, a lawyer and business asset appraiser who specializes in bringing experts together to solve complex problems, recognized that Covid-19 was airborne early in the pandemic. He believed that improving indoor air quality through improved ventilation, better filters, and more air exchanges per hour could lower the risk of breathing in airborne pathogens in any building, no matter its purpose.
At Apricot Tree Café, Gold brought together a team of experts for a pilot project that he called Back2B AirSafeR (i.e., Back 2 Business with safe air). The team included an atmospheric scientist, an HVAC (Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning) contractor, an industrial hygienist and Dr. Gabor Lantos, an occupational health physician and engineer. Using equipment like a CO2 monitor and a device to measure air pressure, and accounting for the shape of the restaurant, the team ultimately recommended some baffles to direct air flow, HEPA filters, and monitors. (Hochholdinger elected not to purchase baffles.)
Monitoring is crucial, according to Lantos, who not only advised hospitals on disease prevention protocols but also contributed to the government commission set up after the 2003 SARS-1 outbreak killed 44 Canadians. He recalled an incident in which a hospital experienced multiple cases of a bacterial infection despite putting patients in isolation rooms; it turned out the rooms’ seals and filtration had not been checked for three years.
At the Apricot Tree, Hochholdinger initially arranged with the Barrie, Ontario-based Aeorex company to rent two filters, which cost $2500 CAD each, in case the government instituted more stay-at-home orders. Impressed by the filters, he decided to make a permanent investment and buy them for the cafe. He paid for one of the filters using a tax credit for businesses to improve their air quality.
Even with tax credits, it’s not something that every restaurant can afford to do given the industry’s thin profit margins. Gold said of Hochholdinger, “He had the money to do it, and he also had a very, very, very dedicated customer following.”
Protecting customers and staff
Jennifer Code, a retired speech language pathologist, and her husband Fraser, a retired physics professor, have frequented the Apricot Tree since they opened. They’ve always loved the food, but now they love it for the cleaner indoor air.
Because Fraser is immunocompromised, they continue to wear N95 masks when meeting people indoors and outdoors if they cannot maintain a safe distance. Apricot Tree Café is one of the few restaurants that the Codes frequent regularly because they feel safe there. “Whenever we’re going out with a group, I always suggest the Apricot Tree and hope the others will agree,” said Jennifer. Since 2021, they’ve held both their 50th wedding anniversary and her 80th birthday parties there.
And when they are just dropping in for a meal, they always ask to “sit by ‘Iris’,” as Hochholdinger calls the filters. The restaurant’s clean air measures are “very low profile,” Fraser said. “It’s like being outside in a crowded room.”
Server Mayah Foo, who turns 20 this summer, has heard a few customers mention the sound the filters make. But otherwise, she believes the diners notice them as little as she does. The only additional work they require is turning them on at opening and off at closing.
As Foo’s mother works in healthcare and her sister is immunocompromised, she appreciates the efforts the café makes. Most notable for her is the improvement in her allergies. “Because I spend so much time here, I’m noticing that I’m breathing better,” she said. In addition to the filters and monitors, the staff mask whenever there’s a surge, or if diners request it. Hochholdinger stocks up on masks for his staff and keeps an eye on data; he had relied on Ontario’s wastewater surveillance data, though the province recently announced plans to stop collecting it. While a federal wastewater program remains in place, Ontario experts have expressed concern that it will not be as comprehensive as the provincial program.
Advocating for clean air
On June 6, the community organization CommunityVotes Mississauga announced the winners of its 2024 awards. Apricot Tree Café received the top “Platinum” award in 15 categories, including the overall “All Restaurants,” “Fine Dining,” and “Desserts” categories.
On Twitter/X, appreciative customers also congratulated the restaurant for a different reason: its clean air. “You would win super duper quadruple platinum in indoor air quality, following science and caring for your community,” wrote MJNabuurs, a fellow clean air advocate in Ontario.
Hochholdinger posts far more about clean air than about food-focused events like the café’s annual Crêpe Fest. In the past, he also asked business associations to promote, or even just mention, the availability of air audits and air purifiers, as well as the tax credit prior to its expiration, to no avail. “There’s just not enough information out there,” he said, adding that people are more likely to avoid the subject if Covid-19 is mentioned.
But Covid-conscious diners and advocates appreciate his efforts. “He’s dedicated to really improving the air quality for his patrons and making that front and center,” said Toronto emergency physician Kashif Pirzada.
A doctor who has treated patients with both SARS-1 and Covid-19, Pirzada developed the Raven CleanAir app to allow users to upload real-time CO2 measurements in indoor spaces anywhere in the world. Pirzada plans to make a trip to Mississauga eventually to visit the Apricot Tree. “If I eat anywhere indoors, it would be there,” he said.
Sabina Vohra-Miller, founder of the Unambiguous Science website that debunks scientific misinformation, is similarly appreciative of Hochholdinger’s efforts. She frequents the Apricot Tree Café’s outdoor patio, which is open approximately from May to September, but has not yet dined inside. “ I greatly appreciate all the efforts they put into keeping patrons safe,” she told The Sick Times via email. “That said, my father is immunocompromised and we have yet to get Covid. To me, eating at a restaurant is not worth risking myself to an infection.”
For Hochholdinger, it’s all just common sense. The cleaner the air, the healthier the staff and the fewer sick days the restaurant has to work around. The cleaner the air, the less need to shut down during future pandemics, saving small businesses in particular and the economy as a whole.
According to Pirzada, data from his clean air app has shown many corporate malls and office buildings in Toronto quietly improving their ventilation. But Hochholdinger is unique in speaking out about the importance of better indoor air quality, he said. “It’s also a great example of what we can do to make everything safer for the next pandemic,” Pirzada added.
Last month, a commenter asked the café on Twitter/X, “Were you like this before covid?” Hochholdinger replied: “Before Covid we did not know as much. Now we do. And now we adjust.”
The cleaner the air, the healthier the staff and the fewer sick days the restaurant has to work around. The cleaner the air, the less need to shut down during future pandemics, saving small businesses in particular and the economy as a whole.
Sara Murphy is a disabled Iranian-American writer and K-pop stan living outside of Asheville, North Carolina. Her work has appeared in National Geographic, The New York Times, and elsewhere.
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