Nocturna Coffee & Oddities opened in Salisbury, North Carolina, in October 2025. It sold coffee, hosted psychic events and kept a room packed with strange curios. By its owners’ account, the town took to it at first.

Things turned the next month at the city’s annual holiday parade. Nocturna’s entry was a float themed on Krampus, the horned figure of Alpine Christmas folklore who punishes naughty children. When it rolled out, churchgoing children pelted it with rocks and sticks, co-owner Madison Moore said. “Everyone thought that Satan was riding through Salisbury,” she recalled. The owners don’t practice anything, she added; they just like weird stuff. Over the following months, she said, the shop faced repeated threats and harassment from people who saw it as unholy.

In early February 2026, Nocturna announced it was closing. Fans called it a huge loss and a welcome break from small-town boredom. Critics celebrated online, some with posts praising the Lord, which offered a glimpse of the messages Moore said she had been getting.

Moore hopes to reopen somewhere bigger and more welcoming, such as Charlotte or Concord, or failing that, to take Nocturna on the road as a mobile business.