A coffee place located centrally within a walkable distance from anywhere in the North End is set to go in the new Morgan Park Place. I don't want to sound ungracious in a neighborhood without such an establishment, but we have yet to find out who will be running the joint. Hopefully, it's going to be a locally-owned java hut. But if we have to settle for Starbucks, it's better than nothing. At least it will mean that I'm not forced to drive to other neighborhoods everytime I require a latte.
Alright this is where we're going disagree. I huge on a coffee shop in the neighborhood, Frothy Monkey, JJ’s, or Portland Brew tops on my list… But I’m telling you if you a F@#@ING Starbucks moves in… The house is going up for sale and I’m getting the hell out! That place is satan in the form of a coffee shop! I would rather have nothing at all then a Starbucks.
ReplyDeleteIf the Lawrence Brothers are reading this you’ve got a huge thumbs up on Coffee shop from a LOT of the locals but *NO STARBUCKS*.
Chances are it won't be a Starbucks. I was trying to send a little good karma out into the caffeine universe in the hopes that it comes back to us in excellence.
ReplyDeleteI've already avowed my 95% support for local establishments, especially Portland Brews and the Bongo syndicate.
However, I refuse to play into the good-evil dualism that foists Starbucks on the patard of dark roasted demons. I get the impression that that dualism is sometimes used by local empires as a marketing tool to make more money themselves. The coffee world is gray or light brown like a fine au lait, not black or white.
I live in an urban neighborhood so that I have to drive as little as possible and if we're going to call something a sin, it's a sin when a neighborhood doesn't have a coffee place in walking distance. It's a sin that if I don't have the ingredients in my home I have to burn fossil fuels just to satisfy my selfish pleasures.
In the best of all my possible worlds, the new coffee place would be a classic house. I prefer a house to the modern retail space that will be "The Market at Morgan Park," but I won't pull up stakes just because we don't get a coffee house. I'll patronize whatever coffee place we get just to be able to sit, savor the brew and watch the world go by my neighborhood for a few moments. If it's Starbucks, then I accept that there are necessary evils in the world if one desires higher goods. That doesn't mean I'm a Starbuxanoid. It just means that I'm working with what I've been given.
And I'll continue to encourage Bongo Bob to start something here rather than let Starbucks rule the day. And that's the real problem if Starbucks moves here: why were the folks at Kijiji, Sam and Zoes, Frothy Monkey (is that a 12 Ave. ski lodge or what?), or Cafe Coco not on top of this sooner if Starbucks moves in? If those neighborhood places don't consider my neighborhood worthy, then why should I commit myself 100 percent to them?
I completely agree. Coffee is the main priority here:)
ReplyDelete(My husband has serious issues with Starbucks,...he tells me I am handing money to satan everytime I go in).
Nicely said... But I'm at least going to picket the Starbucks and give them shifty eyes every time my wife makes me pay for her tall-caramel-no-whip-extra-shot-wet-Cappuccino. Ooohh, a little piece of me dies every time I have to do that…
ReplyDelete(Ok I think my rant is finished now, thanks for listening)