RALEIGH, N.C. – Downtown Raleigh’s busiest street is slowly coming back to life following a summer most businesses on Fayetteville Street would rather forget.

Before the pandemic, Crema was a downtown Raleigh hotspot.

“Oh yeah, yeah, super busy," says Mikhail Jannik, general manager of Crema. “During the whole time we were gone, I would get messages from customers asking on a daily basis, when are we coming back.”

The pandemic caused Jannik to shut Crema’s doors for several months.

But this week, the cafe finally reopened.

The business was one of several on Fayetteville Street looted during protests over George Floyd’s death.

The safe was stolen, the front door smashed.

“It was just more of a mess," Jannik says.

And an even bigger mess was across the street at Shish Kabob.

While Crema was shut down mainly because of the the pandemic, Shish Kabob had to close because of significant looting to its building.

“We also understood that these people had a message to deliver and stuff, so we weren’t mad," says Amier Tehar, who works at Shish Kabob.

It took several months to replace the smashed windows.

While business is slow for both Crema and Shish Kabob for now, the doors, at least, are finally open.

“Seeing people slowly and surely coming back makes me realize we needed to be back open and needed to be here for our customers," Jannik says.

Staff members at Shish Kabob say they’re thankful for the good Samaritans who helped clean up their store immediately after it was looted.