Glasgow café owner says he 'owes everything' to community

James Evans, who owns Maryhill institution Café D’Jaconelli, was left “devastated” when what’s believed to be loose wiring caused a fire to break out in the historic art deco ice cream shop on September 12.  

But he says the "whole community pulled together" to help them reopen just seven weeks later.  

READ NEXT: Owner vows to reopen after historic Glasgow café damaged in fire

L-R: Susan Gordon, Sharon Evans and Sandra Simpson (Image: Gordon Terris, Newsquest) James, who has owned the 100-year-old café since 1992, said: "I’ve been there a long time, but I had no idea I had made as many friends.  

"That’s what surprised me. The amount of friends I had made over the year, and I hadn’t realised, it was unbelievable.  

"That’s the value of the shop to people that they’ll give their time."

Despite the damage caused by the fire, James says they were "lucky" because the Maryhill Road cafe’s original fittings were saved.  

READ NEXT: Iconic Glasgow cafe dating to 1924 reopened after fire

Cafe D'Jaconelli the morning after the fire (Image: Robert Perry) As well as staff coming in to help clean up the store right away, James highlights West End Cabinet Makers, who did work for free, and a customer named Colin for helping him get the café reopened so quickly.  

He said: "We knew we hadn't lost the guts of it, the seats were safe, the Jukebox needed a bit of work. 

"There was a bit of the original wood that was burnt and West End Cabinet Makers came in and said they could pull it off and replicate it.  

"He’s been coming to the shop for as long as I’ve been there, over 30 years and he said, ‘I’m not going to let you down, I said ‘no, you can’t pull it off, he said ‘please I promise you’, 

"He made all the wood absolutely perfect. He did such a good job retaining the original feel of the shop.  

"He had the strips of wood measured out to the millimetre, sanded, he matched the colour exact – he’s really kept the place what it is."

He continued: "A customer called Colin came in a couple of days after the fire and he said ‘I’m sad to hear about the shop’.  

"He had seen we had no electricity, we were all wearing head torches and he went away and brought back a generator, all the lights and seven boxes of tools and he stayed for seven weeks just for the love of the shop.  

"Between the West End Cabinet Makers and Colin, I really owe everything to them."

(Image: Gordon Terris, Newsquest) To remember people’s hard work and dedication to Jaconelli’s, James is planning to get plaques installed in the café naming those who gave their time to bring the business back to life.  

He also says a GoFundMe which raised around £1400 ‘brought a tear to his eye’.  

He said: "It’s hopefully something I’ll never have to go through again, but I always want to remember the people that made a difference to the shop.  

"I want people to know."

James says he believes there is a "generational" love for the café and that’s why people worked hard to get the café reopened because "they don’t want to lose it."

The 53-year-old explained: "People have just been coming for generations and they know we keep the prices low and the quality high.  

"They know they’re valued when they come to the shop and getting that value for years, I think that was their way to say, ‘we appreciate what you’ve done and how you’ve looked after their mums, dads, grannies, kids.’."

Susan Gordon, Sharon Evans and Sandra Simpson (Image: Gordon Terris, Newsquest) The café officially reopened on Thursday, October 31 with James saying it feels "amazing" to welcome back customers.  

He said: "It was such a relief that we could get back open because there was points that we couldn’t really see the light at the end of the tunnel, every day was like a building site and then slowly it just came back together.  

"The response has been unbelievable.  

"People come in and say, ‘were so glad to see you back’, customers have been giving us bottles of champagne and cards 

"It’s phenomenal."

Café D'Jaconelli first opened it's doors in 1924, celebrating its 100th anniversary this year.

James has kept celebrations low key because "I'm not fancy like that".

The café was featured in the 1995 film Trainspotting as the spot where Renton and Spud shared a milkshake, with actor Robert Carlyle who used to live nearby also a fan. 

Back in 2007, previous owner Mario Jaconelli told the Glasgow Times that he used to have to throw Billy Connolly out of the establishment due to his late-night drunken antics, though said he was never aggressive.