Nubar Cafe doesn't let weekend burglary ruin first anniversary for Chicago coffee shop

Staff at an Albany Park coffee shop planned to celebrate their first anniversary over the weekend, but they were burglarized the same day. 

The resilient owners of Nubar Cafe made sure the party went on.

Burglars broke into the coffee shop's window, got away with cash, and made a mess, but did not take away the locally owned cafe's accomplishment.  

Zarya Mustafa left her tech job, moved to Chicago, became a mom, and last year opened Nubar Cafe in Albany Park. The immigrant-owned coffee shop at 3200 W. Lawrence Av. has an all-female staff.

Nubar is a Kurdish word symbolizing a fresh start and new beginnings, just like Mustafa's.

"This year, I feel like I've learned a lot. I'm very happy that I have employees. I'm helping other individual achieving their dreams," Zarya Mustafa said.

Surveillance video from the business shows that, around 4 a.m. Saturday, a man broke in and ripped out the register. He got away with about $200 in cash. Video shows at least three people fleeing the scene in a black sedan.

"Breaking the window, and coming inside, grabbing the register, it all took 10 seconds," Mustafa said. "I was very sad in the morning, and my staff, they were very scared."

The burglar caused far more damage to the custom windows imported from Turkey than he stole from the business, but Nubar Cafe's first anniversary celebration on Saturday couldn't be stolen.

"That was our first-year anniversary, so I did not want that day to go by like that. I wanted to turn it into a positive," she said.

After cleaning up the broken glass, Mustafa not only kept the cafe open, she made sure to mark the accomplishment with her staff and customers.

"As we opened the store and tried to help customers by bringing the cake and celebrating, it kind of felt like nothing happened. That kind of wiped away the whole incident," she said. "Every time when something happens in your life, just look at our logo, just look at our brand name. It means fresh start. You know, start again, begin again."

While police responded to the break-in, no arrests have been made as of Monday night.