It was a popular meeting point in the heart of Vanuatu's bustling capital city — a place to get coffee, buy books, and find shelter from the hot Pacific sun.
But since the devastating that struck Port Vila, Jill's Cafe has had to find a new home.
It's one of many businesses that have looked beyond the CBD for a place to reopen, after safety concerns kept the city centre closed for months.
Cafe owner Elizabeth Worwor is grateful it could reopen its doors in the suburbs — and provide a quiet hangout for a shaken city.
"People can sit here, people can relax, people can forget what happened," she said.
"It's just a miracle that we got this place."
Nearly six months after the natural disaster, tourists are returning to Port Vila, handicraft sellers are back at the waterfront, and the city's minivan buses are cramming into the streets.
But the permanent relocation of Jill's Cafe — after nearly 30 years in the city centre — is just one of the ways Port Vila will look different as it re-emerges from the magnitude-7.3 earthquake.
Tourists returning to the city are finding a CBD that is reshaping itself.
Where other familiar landmarks once stood, such as the popular hotel and tourist digs Chantillys on the Bay, there are empty lots.
Business owners and the nation's government officials are looking hard at how these spaces will appear in the future.
As the capital continues to bounce back, residents say it's tourism that will fuel the recovery.
And they say Port Vila should be rebuilt accordingly.
Tourism 'is the lifeblood'
News of the earthquake did little to deter Australians Jamie Brown and Luciana Gato from booking a trip to Vanuatu.
The promise of turquoise waters and sea turtle encounters lured them there, as did the idea of helping the nation's economy with their tourist dollars.
"It was a chance to help out the local community, buying gifts and going to restaurants because obviously it was a once-in-a-generation earthquake," Mr Brown said.
The December 17 earthquake killed 14 people and affected an estimated 80,000 people.
It caused widespread destruction to homes, buildings and infrastructure on the island of Efate, home to Vanuatu's capital, and the main population centre of the archipelago's 83 islands.
Port Vila's town centre resembled a ghost town in the following months, closed to the public while demolition crews pulled down unsafe buildings.
But that's slowly started to change — and with the CBD now partly re-opened, residents are hopeful it will keep recovering.
"I'm overwhelmed when I start seeing people around here," local Roslyn Garae told the ABC.
Vanuatu's Tourism Office said international demand for holidays in the South Pacific island nation had withstood the quake.
But its CEO, Adela Issachar Aru, said there's room for growth.
"Tourism is the lifeblood of Vanuatu's economy," she said.
"We have to ensure that we promote Vanuatu as that fun adventure, cultural destination."
There are still hurdles to overcome for the tourism industry.
A massive landslide, caused by the earthquake, continues to block the road to Port Vila's main wharf used by international cruises and domestic shipping, and there's still no immediate plan to clear it.
The collapse of the national carrier, Air Vanuatu, last year is also still reverberating across tourism destinations in the outer islands, including Santo and Tanna islands.
"They're not getting that volume that they would be getting pre-earthquake, pre-Air Vanuatu times because they're still challenged with domestic connectivity," Ms Aru said.
Together with three tropical cyclones in 2023 and the COVID pandemic, the crises have weighed heavily on the industry, which has had the Pacific's worst post-pandemic tourism recovery.
Still, if tourism recovers and the government can finance reconstruction, Vanuatu's economy is expected to grow 2 per cent in 2025, according to an Asian Development Bank report published last month.
The Vanuatu government estimates the post-earthquake recovery will cost $US235 million.
And as the reconstruction effort gets under way, some say it's the perfect time to rethink Port Vila.
'A more beautiful city'
Speaking from Port Vila's city centre, Ms Garae is optimistic it will be rebuilt better than before.
And she wants the reconstruction effort to make the city a better experience for tourists.
Others agree the capital faces an opportunity.
Local business owner Milroy Cainton, who runs the Pikinini Bar on the main highway through town, is calling for more pedestrian-friendly spaces.
He said heavy traffic in the city is creating an unpleasant experience for locals and tourists alike.
"Now we have to transform Port Vila into a more beautiful city," he said.
His online petition has gained hundreds of signatures.
"Pedestrianising the main street CBD is not only offering businesses the opportunity to attract more customers, but for both visitors and locals to meet each other and say 'hello' or 'bonjour, ça va? [hello, how's it going?]'. You know, mingle with each other," Mr Cainton said.
Parts of the CBD remain closed to the public as demolition work continues and vacant blocks are primed for redevelopment.
The ABC approached the Vanuatu government for comment about the reconstruction effort but it did not reply.
Structural engineer assessments following the quake revealed two types of buildings that fared badly: Older structures built without seismic engineering, and new buildings that weren't built to code.
The government is revising the country's building code and pledging to enforce it more strictly, after from multiple sources that several modern, yet badly damaged Chinese government-funded buildings had bypassed the local code.
As businesses begin to reconstruct their buildings, they're mindful December's earthquake won't be the last for the natural disaster-prone country.
Among them are the owners of Chantilly's hotel, which sat on the edge of Vila Bay before it was demolished due to earthquake damage.
Hotel managing director Loic Bernier said the business has received development proposals from New Zealand, Australia, Fiji and Thailand.
Mr Bernier wants a design that can withstand the next cyclone or earthquake as successfully as its other property Ramada Resort, built in 2016 on the other side of town.
"We used an engineer from New Zealand [for Ramada Resort], which was much more adapted for Vanuatu than any other engineering firm, as [NZ] has had many, many earthquakes over the years," he said.
The new Chantilly's hotel will be up to 40 rooms larger and will provide an improved hub for tourists, Mr Bernier said.
[YouTube Vanuatu earthquake]He's promising it will be something "iconic" that "people will keep in their memory".
In the meantime, the business is joining others in calling on the Vanuatu government to improve city infrastructure like sanitation, water drainage and pedestrian spaces.
"There's a lot of things to think about and we will also probably call for proper town planning and architects to redesign the town centre," Mr Bernier said.
