STILLWATER — The owners of a Stillwater coffee shop have been advertising their business with colorful chalk art on city sidewalks, until they got a visit from police.

The Daily Grind Espresso Cafe is tucked out of the way behind a building on Main Street. So owners Tim and Megan Palm thought some sidewalk art could draw customers to their out-of-the-way location.

“We see a huge change in our business when he does it,” Megan Palm said of her husband’s sidewalk art.

“It’s hundreds of dollars. We’ve tried sandwich boards and signs, but they always get busted. This is kind of our way of doing something creative every day that gets washed off in the rain,” she said.

An anonymous complaint brought a police officer to the business recently to tell the Palms that the artwork violated the city’s “off-site signage” ordinance. Megan Palm posted the dilemma on Facebook and asked customers to spread the word about the cafe’s location. One customer even started a Facebook page called “United Against Stillwater’s Ban on Business Use of Sidewalk Chalk.”

City planner Abbi Whitman said the Daily Grind will be allowed to draw pictures of coffee cups and smoothies and arrows on the sidewalk, but just as long as they didn’t use the business name.