It was such that when I was explaining to a friend why they don’t see me in there anymore I said the lines are endless and slow moving because of…and they laughed and said “oh so-and-so? Yeah I don’t know what’s up with that”. Some people can’t be rushed for any reason. I only ever went in at lunch.
Joule too, had excellent coffee but the whole table service yet still a coffee shop…? They didn’t understand what general coffee shop expectations were. They added a to-go counter to try and fix some of that, but if you wanted to sit down you had to accept table service. For the brief time Benelux, Joule, De Los Muertos and Helios all coexisted downtown (in 2014) I thought we had something of a robust coffee scene. Hillsborough St also had 6-7 places for a brief moment in time (Liquid State, Jubala, Global Village, Reverie, Man-Mur, Cup a Joe and the place in Royal across from Meredith). For all the good things about Kane’s new stuff I hope it doesn’t permanently drive up the rents around there (Glenwood area) so that a small, local coffee shop never stands a chance again. The small space approach is the only hope as @Francisco says.
Edit, Leo can you move this one over too? I must have been composing it when you moved the rest over…Thanks. And thanks for the topic. Been wanting to to talk about this stuff for a while and was curious what the group thought.
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