Coffeehouse owner, cancer survivor toast new beginning

For Sarah Peters and Melissa Laake, the fire at Peters’ coffee house could have marked the beginning of the end. A month later,  Peters, who had watched her business destroyed, and Laake, who didn’t know how she was going to make it through her cancer diagnosis without her favorite morning “Joe Mocha,” were toasting a new beginning. “Getting back to normal one cup at a time,” Laake said Wednesday as hundreds shared coffee in the Pleasant Ridge parking lot next to the spot where Peters’ The Coffee Exchange used to stand.