Her business's Facebook moniker is "Paris is always a good idea", but for much of the last year, Joanne Day was starting to think opening the Little Paris Cafe in Katoomba was not such a good idea after all.
"I opened last year just weeks before the fires and I thought 'Oh no, what have I done?' I nearly went broke even before we got going," Ms Day said.
The Little Paris Cafe was one of many Mountains tourist businesses which suffered heavily after the bushfires.
Insurance didn't cover Ms Day's losses, the rent still had to be paid and her food was either given away to the firies or thrown out.
Lost tourism cost the Mountains economy $71.4 million, according to a Blue Mountains Economic Enterprise-commissioned study.
"Smoke was sitting in the square just outside, we shut for a week and struggled for months ... until Christmas," Ms Day said.
Around the corner in Katoomba Street, Gina Novak-McKay, owner of aBras Kada Bras, said the fire period cost her "a good six weeks" of business.
"It was a ghost town, a total ghost town," Mrs Novak-McKay said. She has managed to rebuild afterwards "because I'm the only one [fitting bras] for locals".
And as evidence of that success the lingerie business is now in the running for a coveted Blue Mountains business award.
For Ms Day, too, it's now a different story, with what is looking like a bumper spring.
"We now have a regular customer base of locals who have discovered us and lots of happy tourists who tell me it's the nicest cafe in Katoomba," she said.
Nestled in an out-of-the-way arcade between the Blue Mountains Cultural Centre and Katoomba Street, she's thrilled to be "either top two or three" in the top Mountains cafes (alongside Pins on Lurline and another newcomer Up Beet Juice) on Trip Advisor for the Mountains. Last month she also became an official Slow Food cafe.
With a background working with the French designer brand Yves Saint Laurent, Ms Day travelled regularly to Paris for trade shows and developed a great love of French fare. She studied home economics after school and ended up in fashion but said she's "so glad" to have made her way back to food.
"I just really missed French food. We have fine dining in the Mountains but we didn't have that quintessential French cafe. Customers say it's better than Paris, the food is fresher."
Open seven days a week for breakfast and lunch, she's got everything crossed for a busy and bushfire-free summer.
"I don't want to have to survive another one."
