Once a gathering place for a potpourri of people – from young musicians starving for an audience to businessmen looking for a good cup of coffee, Java Grotto on the Mandeville Lakefront was a special hangout for many.

With its plush sofas and dim lighting, it was possibly the living room away from the stress of the everyday life that many craved.

But on Aug. 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina pushed Lake Pontchartrain up over the seawall, and the waves crashed through the door and completely flooded the coffeehouse. The power of the waves tore the walls downing, leaving behind a pile of bricks and rubble and many people looking for a new place to gather and get a cup of coffee. Like lost souls, coffeehouse regulars flocked to the pile of rubble and with paints and markers left messages of condolences.

Just around the corner, on Girod Street, owner Peter Kusiw’s other establishment, Juniper Restaurant was also destroyed by Katrina’s vengeance.

Soon after the storm, Kusiw re-opened Juniper at 301 Lafitte St. at the intersection with Jefferson Street, but Java Grotto never came back.

“I have had so many people in this region since the storm ask me if I would ever bring Java Grotto back,” Kusiw said in a press release issued announcing the coffee house’s return. Shortly after opening Juniper at the new location, Kusiw tried dedicating a small corner to a scaled back Java Grotto. “That was not the right time,” he said, but added, “now is the right time.”

Java Grotto was not an ordinary coffee house. It became a culture in itself that people of all walks of life did embrace side by side. It became a huge family. I think Old Mandeville wants the family back,’’ he wrote in the release from the Old Mandeville Business Association.

Java Grotto will return March 9 at the new home of Juniper Restaurant.

The building now will be jointly Java Grotto/Juniper.

Kusiw said it will be a coffee house seven days a week from 6:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. and Juniper Restaurant for evening dining Monday through Saturday beginning daily at 5 p.m.䩶