Hi everyone,

My name is Nick Leo, and I’m one of the owners of The Cave DSM—our small wine shop and bar on the western edge of downtown Des Moines. I never wanted to find myself writing something like this, but here we are.

We opened in August 2020 after delays from our original April opening—right at the beginning stages of a global pandemic that no one had planned for. Despite that we built something we truly believed in. Our mission was simple: to make real wine accessible and to create a space that felt different. A place for artists to share their work, a place that embraces multiculturalism, and a place that encourages curiosity and openness.

To make that happen, we poured everything we had into it. We handled as much of the build-out ourselves as legally possible, sacrificed our own time and income, paid our staff above industry standards, regularly hosted local and regional artists with the little funds we had, and kept our prices as accessible to the public as we could.

Like many small business owners, we also invested our personal savings to open The Cave, and for its existence have taken little to zero pay to ourselves in order to keep the business running and to support our small staff.

To be transparent: we are not doing well.

Like many small businesses, the past six months have been especially difficult. On top of a broader economic slowdown we’ve faced a series of unexpected challenges and expenses—some of them substantial and completely out of our control.

We’ve adapted, reworked operations, and continued to grow our customer base. The support from our regulars and community has meant everything—but it hasn’t been enough to keep us sustainable for very much longer.

We have always been fiercely independent—no investors, no outside funding—just a commitment to doing things the right way even when it’s the harder option. That commitment is something we’re proud of, but it has also made surviving in our industry even more challenging than it already is.

If you’re in a position to contribute, any support would mean more to us than we could express and articulate. Donations would go directly toward covering the unexpected expenses we’ve incurred over the past several months and towards supporting our staff.

If donating isn’t possible there are still meaningful ways to support us—stop in for a drink or a bottle, leave a positive review online, share this campaign, or simply spread the word about our space.

No matter what happens, we won’t see this as a failure. Over the past 5½ years we have built something incredibly meaningful to us and we hope for others as well. We’ve connected with so many wonderful people, have been locally and nationally recognized for our work, and have received more love and support than we ever could have ever imagined.

To have created a space that meant something—even to one person—has been deeply profound for us.

Thank you for being part of it all.