Coffee shops bring people together

Most people leave their homes to go to work. And many people leave their homes to socialize. What are the options in Minnesota? The old, traditional way of socializing was church: worship and fellowship, dinners, discussions, festivals, game nights and maybe even intergenerational quilting. Now, maybe only half the people are involved in church. Another typical Minnesota gathering has been and continues to be the community meeting with goals and agendas and punch and cookies. The Latinos coming from warmer climate have brought their restaurants, grocery stores and nightclubs with them, all gathering places they go to in order to see familiar faces and just to be together with other people, just like back home where people "live in the streets." And before the Latinization of Lake Street, there were always bars and restaurants with a regular clientele of people who knew each other. And now there are coffee shops, another kind of gathering place.

Two new coffee shops have opened in South Minneapolis. In July, brothers Denny and Richard Everson opened Hiawatha Joe at 42nd and Hiawatha , and in November, Mary Buhr opened Coffee Eclectic at 3439 Cedar Ave. S.
Proverbial entrepeneurs, the Everson brothers have always had some venture or other in motion.

Going with the flow, they’ve adapted over the years to changes in the market. They started with security and telephone systems, and ended up selling cell phones and pagers in their current building before starting Hiawatha Joe.

The idea for a coffee shop came from the drive through Java Hut on 53rd and Minnehaha that operated successfully for seven years before the Highway 55 reroute closed them down. Denny said they figured Hiawatha Joe could serve those same customers on their way downtown. Rounding out the coffee shop will be a delicatessen toward the back.

The waiter, who turned out to be Richard’s son, would like to see Hiawatha Joe become the kind of Minneapolis-style coffee shop he loves, with art exhibits, computers, concerts, books and magazines. He said that in Southern California, where he goes to school, "Starbucks rules the land." Coffee shops are definitely not intellectual centers and places to share ideas like they are here.

Hiawatha Joe is still under construction, but the coffee is fresh and hot. And the decor, while not quite finished, is bright and pleasant. One of those imitation torches with a flickering light and cloth flames sits on the windowsill next to the door, beckoning like a lighthouse. The tiled floor area where the counter rests is partitioned off by a half-wall with its sheet rock still showing. Metal tables and chairs give that area an outdoor café feeling. Encompassed by the half-wall are shiny, little, black, square-topped tables and blonde, wooden chairs that blend with the glossy, blonde hardwood floor. Large, vigorously healthy plants add to the cozy warmth and quiet, contrasting with the strident bleakness of rushing traffic on the other side of the large picture windows. In the back corner is a door that says Resource Center. Paul said everyone asks him, "What is the Resource Center? Why does the coffee shop have a Resource Center?"

A remnant from telephone systems days, that door will be removed and the room behind it will become a lounge area, which Paul insisted should have a fireplace.
Winding up my conversation with Denny, he mused that years ago there used to be bars all over the place in South Minneapolis. People would congregate there after work to socialize. Now, most of the places he remembers are gone, and he is speculating that perhaps coffee shops will provide that same kind of spaces where people can gather to catch up on neighborhood news or just see familiar, friendly faces. Hiawatha Joe has definite potential for becoming such a place.

Pretty Paper, a scrapbooking craft and hobby store in the middle of the building, in its own way has the same potential. Working in the city is new to owner Carla Boldon, and she loves the way people come in to the store and welcome her to the neighborhood. "They consider the area where they live to be a neighborhood. It’s so different in the suburbs [she runs another paper store in Blaine] where everyone is so far apart." Activities at the store will bring people together. So far, she’s started a stamping club and is planning to have paper crafts classes soon.

A date for the official grand opening is not set yet, but they are estimating it will be in a couple of months, when the deli is ready.

Mary Buhr followed a completely different set of steps in opening Coffee Eclectic.
During the 23 years she worked in the airline industry, she often dreamed of owning her own business, but always felt she wouldn’t know enough.

The Phoenix rising in the steam from the coffee cup on her business card represents the story of the process she went through to get to the place where she could take a chance. It represents her old life being burned to ashes and her new life rising.

The story itself is highly undramatic but its meaning is very dramatic and was only understood in retrospect. Buhr’s company offered her an attractive job in Phoenix, Ariz., and she was really ready for a change. Her son was excited, she had realtors look at her house and then made the decision to go. The day she called to say, yes, she would take the job, the branch in Phoenix shut down.

The process of making the decision to take a risk and move to a new city had put her in a new place. She continued to work at the same job but started playing with the idea of a coffee shop, a little community spot in the Corcoran Neighborhood with neighbors going in and out. The idea of impacting a person’s day with something as simple as a pleasant smile appealed to her.

One day in early June on her way to work she saw the For Rent sign in the window of what had been the Brothers Electric shop. When she got to work, she remembered the number and called it. She was told someone else was looking at the space and if she wanted it she’d better come right away. So she left work and went to look at it. She signed on the dotted line immediately. She worked for another month after giving notice, during which time she took a business class at the Open U: "How to Start Your Own Coffee Shop." While once she hadn’t believed in herself enough to own a business, she now is "smart enough to know I don’t have to know it all. People will help you if you ask."

There’s a lot to learn. When she found out about fair trade coffee, she thought, "I can do a good thing while I do business." So she sells only Peace Coffee, from the fair trade guys who pay their growers a fair wage and, because of their commitment to the environment, deliver their product on bicycles. At this point the only food items she sells are bakery, from the new Franklin Street Bakery, but eventually she plans to have soups and sandwiches.

When she rented the space it was "a big room with a sink in the corner." Lovely, mottled, salmon-colored tiles were already in place on the floor. From there, she had the walls painted an earthy tan (the name of the paint color is "Pearl Harbor") and terra cotta, put in the handicapped bathroom, kitchen and counter, and placed four little square tables, each with four chairs, in the transformed, intimate room. A magazine rack and lamp next to two sitting room upholstered chairs complete the interior.

Business has been good so far. Tony White, an ex Peace Corps volunteer from the neighborhood, and Buhr’s daughter, Amanda Buhr, have been her right hand in making things run smoothly. Buhr has also employed other people who live nearby. One of them told her the training she was given for the job was the best and the most she had ever had anywhere.

Coffee Eclectic is already starting to look like the gathering place people in the vicinity have been waiting for.

While two lovely coffee shops are getting on their feet, a very beautiful one is buckling at the knees. A month and a half ago I drove down Franklin Avenue and looked over at the Ancient Traders Market. Sadly, I could see a big CLOSED sign on the Black Mesa coffee shop window. I couldn’t believe my eyes. Of all the coffee shops I am drawn to, it was my favorite. The big airy room with the American Southwest ambient made me feel I was on vacation. Tony Genia, the owner, was warm and easy-going, a delightful person to encounter. I drove by a week later, thinking maybe I hadn’t really seen a closed sign, or maybe it had just been temporary, but there it was again.

Then I heard that Tony’s wife had needed surgery and so they couldn’t keep up the work. They wanted to retire anyway so had decided to sell, but were having trouble finding a buyer. I heard they had sunk their life savings into the coffee shop and I prayed they would get it back. I read an article in The Circle describing the conflict involved in the closing of Black Mesa.

For two years the Black Mesa was more than just an attractive place to drink coffee. It was a Native American-owned coffee shop for the community; it was like the council chambers for the people who met to work on issues of the neighborhood; and it was Genia’s livelihood.

Hopefully, there will be a satsfactory solution soon: Genia will recover his investment and the coffee shop will continue as a Native-American owned business that’s a central site for neighborhood discussion.

My personal bias is that small business is a noble way to make a living. Small business owners are typically affable, enterprising, congenial, and passionate people. I laud their efforts to make life in the city more livable, and to make a living wage in a creative way. The City should support them, or at least not make their lives difficult, and the community should support them, as well.

Hiawatha Joe’s hours are: Mon. - Fri. 6 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Sat. 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. and Sun. 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. Might change hours to stay open later or close earlier, depending on business.

Pretty Paper Phone #: 612-722-7800. Hours: Wed. 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. ; Thu. & Fri. 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sat.. 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Coffee Eclectic’s hours are 6:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. Mon. through Fri,; 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sat., and 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sun. The grand opening ceremony for Coffee Eclectic is Sat., Dec. 6. All day with special events from 9 a.m. to noon.