Planters outside Patisserie Coralie were vandalized over the weekend, the downtown Evanston pastry shop said in a Facebook post Sunday, Sept. 20.

The shop, owned by Pascal Berthoumieux, sits at the corner of Chicago Avenue and Davis Street. In the post, first reported by Evanston Now, the shop described the damage as part of a pattern.

"This is not the first time our business has had to deal with this type of damage, and it is becoming increasingly difficult to simply accept it as part of doing business downtown," the shop wrote.

The post went further, saying the shop has "invested a great deal into this community" but that repeated incidents make operating downtown feel "less sustainable and increasingly like a liability."

The vandalism comes less than three weeks after coordinated smash-and-grab burglaries hit three businesses on Davis Street. On Sept. 3, a group of offenders smashed the front doors of Bennison's Bakery at 1000 Davis St., CM Chicken at 1009 Davis St. and Gigio's Pizzeria at 1001 Davis St. around 4:40 a.m., according to the Evanston Roundtable.

Evanston Police Cmdr. Chelsea Brown confirmed the burglaries to the Roundtable, saying detectives were actively investigating. No one was in custody as of that report.

Bennison's managers Jennifer Fournier and Blaine Downer told the Roundtable the burglars parked a car in the middle of Davis Street and split up, hitting all three shops at once. A few hundred dollars was taken from each business.

"This is the first time since I've been here that Bennison's has been a victim of smash and grab," Fournier told the Roundtable on Sept. 3. "It was just bizarre."

All three storefronts were quickly boarded up by a 24-hour company, according to Downer. Bennison's opened about an hour late. Gigio's and CM Chicken opened on their normal schedules.

The Patisserie Coralie post referenced those break-ins directly, framing the planter vandalism as part of a broader problem for the downtown business district.

No information about suspects or an Evanston Police Department response to the planter vandalism has been made public. The extent of the damage, including any repair cost, was not detailed in the post.

The shop called on the city to make downtown "a place where businesses feel safe investing, employees feel safe coming to work, and customers feel comfortable visiting."