SALT LAKE CITY — It’s been a rough month for Sugar House Coffee.
“One day, we came in and someone decided to tag the whole south side of our building, as you drive in,” said Emily Potts, the coffee shop's owner. “Just their same name, multiple times, just wanted everyone to know who they were.”
On top of the graffiti, a car ran over their parking lot fence last Friday,
“We had someone ram through our fence, break three posts, rip it out of the ground, and then have the fence land on one of our regular customers’ nice truck’s bumper, and then they just kept driving,” she said. “They drove through the parking lot, didn't stop.”
Thankfully, city workers came to paint over the graffiti.
“They were here the next morning before we opened and had painted it, and the color match is pretty good,” said Potts. “We had also had a few people want to do a mural, so hopefully next year we'll do a collaborative mural with the community and make it look pretty.”
They still haven’t caught the driver of the black SUV who wrecked the fence.
“Big corporate businesses, when their fence falls down, it's not a big deal,” said Potts. “But for us, $3,000 to fix this fence is a big deal right now.”
Ever since construction started, business has been down. Now more than ever, Sugar House Coffee needs support.
“Sugar House as a whole is a special community,” said Potts. “We have kept the small businesses. We, the community, both residents and business owners, we're all very tight. We are trying really hard to fight for this community. I love it. I get asked a lot to open up a second location, but Sugar House Coffee wouldn't be the same anywhere else. I just love this community, and we're here to stay, as long as you can keep supporting us.”
