Beloved St-Henri Neighbourhood Café Suffers Break-In During Coronavirus Closure

ST-HENRI — Neighbourhood staple Café Joe was targeted by vandals on Wednesday. According to a Facebook post, somebody attempted to break and enter into the St-Antoine Street coffee shop in broad daylight, with its door smashed open early in the afternoon. The café’s owners did not publicly state what was stolen (if anything), but either way, it’s certainly a form of kicking this small business when it’s down. Café Joe has been completely closed since March 23 — along with many other businesses in the city, it’s not earning money right now, so it’s hardly in the best position to pay for emergency repairs. Fortunately, Sud-Ouest merchants’ association, the SDC Quartiers du Canal, stepped in to note that that café would likely be eligible for financial support to deal with the situation. There’s also now a GoFundMe in action to support Café Joe.

MONTREAL IN GENERAL — A slice of more positive small business news: the city of Montreal has launched a delivery service that will deliver products from local retailers direct to your door within a day or so. The idea is that it’ll allow local businesses to keep selling their wares even if they’re closed, with a delivery speed that beats Amazon and other online retailers. At present, the service doesn’t deliver most food (non-perishables are the main exception), but it’s still a laudable way to support other local businesses. Find out all the nuts and bolts on a special page set up by the city.

ALL OVER — Supermarket chains IGA and Metro have both started logging known cases of COVID-19 that have appeared in their stores online — find the Metro list here, and IGA’s over here (under Sobey’s, its parent company).

PLATEAU — A few restaurants have started using their kitchens to help local non-profits, and the latest to jump on board is longtime steakhouse Moishes, with the Gazette reporting that they’re working to supply meals to the Old Brewery Mission in Old Montreal.

CENTRE-SUD — A fourth McDonald’s on the Island has been forced to close due to an employee testing positive for COVID-19. The restaurant at 2600 Ontario E closed its doors earlier this week to disinfect the entire restaurant; some staff have put themselves into isolation.

• Help Cafe Joes weather the COVID19 storm [GoFundMe]
• Service de livraison urbaine offert aux commerçants [Ville de Montréal]
• Livraison en temps de pandémie: plus rapide qu’Amazon [Journal de Montréal]
• Moishes is back — for the homeless and health-care workers [Montreal Gazette]