Josie and Peter Livingstone met online in 1999, he’s an army man from Ont., she, a former political television journalist from the Philippines. Together they co-own The Roxstone Café.
If asked 10 years ago what they would be doing, owning and running a coffee shop in Fredericton wasn’t exactly what they would have said.
“I was helping a friend of mine who wanted to move on and have a business, I was her real estate agent helping her look for a property and it was actually her idea to have a coffee shop,” said Josie.
Josie moved to Canada in 2005 to marry Peter. She quickly picked up her career as a real estate agent in Fredericton.
When her friend, Roxanne Cadelina, realized she needed financial assistance, the
Livingstones offered to help.
“She realized she didn’t have enough money and that’s how we came in,” Josie said. “We said ‘why not partner with her and help her on the financial side.’
“I was more interested in the real estate side of the business.”
In April 2013, The Roxstone was born. Josie said they began serving coffee, when one day Peter suggested all day breakfast.
“We intended to only sell coffee and quick foods, but when we opened in April we thought ‘where are all the people?’”
The coffee establishment now serves fresh breakfast, cold sandwiches and desserts throughout the week.
“To answer the need of our customer base we finally found the best recipe for breakfast. Through experimentation we came up with the best way of doing it,” Josie said.
Not only is breakfast served up all day, but The Roxstone is also becoming a popular venue for local musicians.
“We have live music here on Friday nights. We started it because of some requests from people who come here regularly who requested the café as a venue for music. We told them why not,” said Josie.
The couple said live music has helped the café’s business significantly and they will continue to book bands throughout the year.
“I started getting emails from bands all of a sudden,” Peter said. “The Young Novelists have played the past month, they came here and we had a packed house.”
For both Peter and Josie The Roxstone was just a pleasant happenstance, however, they’re enjoying it. They both hope The Roxstone will make its mark on Fredericton.
“Right now I have three years and eight months to go in the military, hopefully this will be my retirement job,” said Peter. Josie remains a real estate agent but manages the business in her downtime. “I’m enjoying my mornings. I open the store in the morning, but I manage the business overall.”
Josie said the café is all a part of her growing admiration for the city.
“I learned to like it here, I came from a big city of 12 million and this one is small, but it’s peaceful and everyone’s nice,” Josie said.
Peter couldn’t agree more. “It’s exciting, it’s neat to sit here and listen to the conversations and business meetings, it’s a really good central meeting place for people.”
The Roxstone is located at 289 Regent St., on the corner of Needham and is open Monday to Friday from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Sat. 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
