Patisserie and Perspective
I look out a south-facing window at my desk, which is both a blessing and a productivity risk. On sunny days, Uptown Saint John has a way of pulling focus. The light hits just right and suddenly a “quick break” feels completely justified. This week, that break kept circling back to one thing: cheesecake.
I’ve had a soft spot for JLM Patisserie since they first opened about a year and a half ago on Princess Street, close to my old apartment. Simple name, quietly confident. About a month ago, they moved to 101 Charlotte Street, and I’d been waiting (impatiently) for the right moment to grab a slice (or two) of cheesecake. Timing matters. They’re open to the public on Wednesdays, otherwise supplying bakeries and shops around Saint John, which somehow makes the experience feel even more special.
Totally forgetting my allergies, I picked up two pistachio vanilla bean cheesecake bars and ended up talking at length with the owner, Jessica. The conversation drifted naturally into small business realities: competition, confidence, and the strange pressure to compare yourself to everyone else in a small city. What stuck with me was her perspective: when you offer something genuinely excellent, you don’t need to second-guess it. You do your thing well, trust that others will do the same, and let everyone find their own niche.
That mindset felt familiar.
I operate as a digital marketing agency, but I specialize heavily in the Google side of things: search, visibility, structure, and strategy. It’s not just what I’m good at; it’s what I genuinely enjoy. And I could see that same alignment in Jessica. She owns her craft. Her patisserie is her lane. And maybe most refreshing of all: she shared that many of the bakery owners in Saint John actually support one another. If one runs out of an ingredient, another steps in. It’s collaborative, not cutthroat. Honestly, that’s how it should be (and often is) in strong local business communities.
That philosophy also shapes how I work. If someone comes to me looking for a social media specialist who lives behind a camera, or a developer doing deep custom code, I’ll happily refer them to another local agency. There was a time I would have said yes to everything and figured it out later. These days, I know my lane, and knowing is a good feeling.
Now, the cheesecake.
The first bite was… heavenly, as expected, but my last. Unfortunately, pistachios and I have a complicated relationship (one that could end in anaphylaxis) so I decided to pass both bars to a friend. He was “very concerned” and ate them both that night. I was jealous.
The next day, I went to the Charlotte Street Bakery inside Saint John City Market and bought two more slices of cheesecake, supplied by JLM, my new favourite acronym. And then I went back again today, fully breaking my commitment to myself to keep this a Wednesday thing.
This week was absolutely a splurge. I’ve been thinking about cheesecake since my birthday a few weeks ago. JLM just happened to be open on a sunny day, and that was enough to break the seal. It’s been a sweet week, full stop, and I have zero regrets.
Sometimes good marketing is about timing. Sometimes good business is about knowing exactly what you do well. And sometimes, it’s just about cheesecake.