With the annual 'Christmas Parade of Lights' set to take back to the streets of Clarence-Rockland this Sunday, Co-Owner of 'Café Joyeux' called these kind of community events "crucial" to local businesses.

"I'm very excited for Sunday," explains Adlan Zeidi. "These sort of events [...] will be exactly what Rockland needs to jump start the economy again.

"When everybody is used to sitting at home and only going for take-out, not getting as involved as they used to, a big event [like this] that brings people together, to bring them onto the main street is crucial."

Unlike many other businesses, Café Joyeux has found a way to continue growing during the pandemic with the coffee roasting side of their business expanding as they send their coffee beans across the region to be sold in stores and used in other shops. 

Ambitious plans for 2022 onwards include "supplying all the coffee in Rockland" says Zeidi but although they saw a "reduction in revenue" in terms of drink sales he "can't complain too much".

"We have a really loyal and truly caring clientele who have patronized us since this whole thing started," Zeidi said gleefully. "They helped us through the first three months and never stopped". 

Zeidi, who started out as Mike Shaw's (co-owner and founder of Café Joyeux) first employee in 2019, became involved in the running of Café Joyeux not long after the pandemic hit.

"Mike, being the only owner at the time, was stuck have to deal with it himself," explained Zaidi. "I said 'Ok no', trying to manage a whole business, trying to keep it alive in the middle of all this, that's too much, let me take on some more responsibility". 

With a profound interest in both running a small business and coffee culture, stemming back from his days hanging out in 'Café Joel', Mike Shaw has found a passionate partner that he will hope is going to take their aspirations to a new level.