This is part of a year-long ‘Love for Local’ series called NB365: portraits of New Brunswick entrepreneurs, businesses and organizations. Huddle is a media partner with Love for Local. Today, we feature Anne-Marie Jourdain of Café Maris Stella in Bas-Caraquet.

COFFEE SHOPS HAVE ALWAYS BEEN AN IMPORTANT PART OF OUR LIVES. PLACES WHERE YOU CAN BE YOURSELF, SOCIALIZE, CREATE, STUDY AND REMAKE THE WORLD.

For a while, in our village, there was no place to gather and eat. It didn’t take much for this desire, put aside over the years, to resurface and give way to everything we loved. Saving an ancestral house, bringing together artisans, young architects, an experienced cook and fair-trade coffee roasted by a passionate Acadian.

We are particularly proud of the different spaces created that attract a diverse clientele. Games, books, comics had to be removed because of sanitary measures. This is certainly what saddens us the most because, as a result, we see fewer families and children interacting. A human and emotional experience is being sacrificed because of the pandemic but people are still cheering us on so we take solace.

Local businesses are unique because they are born from deep desires, they respond to essential and often sharp needs of both entrepreneurs and their customers. It is from this truly invested link that their precious aspect emerges.