Todd, our founder, came up with the idea of the Jimmy Java coffee shop in Late1994/Early1995 while travelling in Australia, New Zealand and South East Asia.

While in New Zealand he went every day to the Igloo Cafe In Queenstown for his morning mocha (you might notice that on the menu our Mocha in the specialty coffees is named the Queenstown Mocha, and this is exactly why!). While traveling around, he noticed that there was a certain culture behind all these coffee shops, and that back at home, Saskatoon might be interested in the social outlet that is the coffeeshop.

Todd started forming the idea of the coffee shop in his head. Years before, Todd and a friend had planned on opening up a coffee shop with a Jimi Hendrix theme, but his friend backed out. Now, for this new idea, Todd changed the spelling of Jimi to Jimmy and "Jimmy Java" seemed to just roll off the tongue. His coffeeshop now had a name!

It wasn't long after returning to Saskatoon that he opened up the first Jimmy Java Coffee Shop in The Centre at Circle and 8th on November 19th, 1995. This was at the perfect time since the cinemas had just opened and the link between the previous Circle Park Mall and Wildwood Mall was brand new!

The new coffee shop was widely popular with visitors to the Centre At Circle And 8th, and developed a sort of "cult" following.

About 3 years after the shop opened, Todd realized that the addition of computers in the coffee shop as an extra convenience to the customers was in demand, and so he catered to those in need of computer access and had them added.

Todd continued to research and experience the coffee shop culture world-wide. He traveled around looking for new and different ideas, products and suppliers.

Todd expanded the business to include not just the shop at the Centre at Circle & 8th, but other locations popped up including two more in Saskatoon.

Unfortunately, the other Saskatoon shops were closed after a few years, and once again, the sole Jimmy Java location in Saskatoon was at The Centre.

After spending a good portion of his life "living" at his coffee shop, Todd "passed the torch" on to a new owner, someone he felt would welcome him back as a customer. And so it was, one of Todd's regular customers and a longtime aquaintence of his bought Jimmy Java from Todd in June 2007.

Since then we've met a variety of wonderful people and have been glad to get to know many of you.

Jimmy Java stayed in the spot that it had been in since Todd opened in 1995, until April 2008, when the Bank next door planned on expanding their office space, and Jimmy Java moved just across the hall.

We regret that the change was a little too much for the coffeeshop to weather, and we closed the doors of our Centre Mall store on July 19, 2008.

We've had a great time serving you for the past year! Thank you to all our customers!

Our Jimmy Java Online Store is still open! Click to visit our Online Store!