‘Come sign our cast’: Saint John cafe makes the most out of broken-window incident

After an act of vandalism, a Saint John coffee shop feels the love – and community support.

It has been a week since Java Moose Coffee Roasters in uptown Saint John, N.B., saw one of its front windows smashed during a fight on the street.

Last week, police arrested a 17-year-old boy for assault with a weapon and failure to comply with a youth sentence. He was remanded into custody and will have a bail hearing at a later date.

Getting a new window takes time, and while the store awaits a fresh pane of glass, the window has been boarded up with a piece of plywood.

From the street it looks like any other boarded-up window that was subjected to vandalism, but inside the coffee shop there’s different story.

“We stand behind the counter and stare at it all day,” says store supervisor Courtney Landry. “I was just like, I think we can spruce this up a little bit.”

Since then Landry has put markers beside the new “window” and people have taken the time to sign the wall.

“Say it’s summertime and you break you arm, brings your spirits down and you decide to get your friends sign your cast,” is how Landry compares the situation.

“So, I was like, ‘Hey, come sign our cast, be a part of history and be a part of Java Moose.’”

The messages range from inside jokes left by regular customers to words of encouragement from neighbouring businesses.

One message reads, “Your coffee is … smashing!” making light of the situation.

Others are more heartfelt messages like, “Our favourite morning stop.”

“We’ll look back at this, and we’ll be able to be like, it was terrible that we had to get a new window, but this was awesome,” says Landry. “To see that from the customers that we have and to see [the boarded window] like this is great silver linings.”

As for what will happen to the board once the new window finally arrives, Landry suggests they may take a photo and mount it somewhere in the uptown store. The board itself will likely go somewhere at the Java Moose factory so staff can look back and reflect at this brief chapter in the company’s history.

“It’s all about the positivity,” Landry says. “We’re not going to let what happened get us down.”

For more New Brunswick news, visit our dedicated provincial page.