I’m sitting here in the mega-corporate coffee house with sadness in my heart. My intention was to be sitting in one of the small neighborhood coffee houses but alas it seems they are all going out of business. I happily shared about the Afresca Coffee shop almost a year ago and it was easily one of the most comfortable places to work for a few hours. The free WiFi was the bomb, too. I noticed a couple of months ago that they started closing very early in the day, especially on Sundays when more folks are out running around. The last two times I stopped by on weekends they were either getting ready to close early in the afternoon or they had in fact already done so. That spelled a warning to me and sure enough about a month ago the signs came down and the place went up for lease.
Just this past week I drove past the Cafe Soleil close to my house and was surprised to see the signs normally in the windows gone. It looked like there were people inside so I hoped they were just remodeling or something. Today the stark reality was unveiled as the big "Soleil" on the front of the shop has been removed and it looked like the place is closed. This is so sad as it’s the last little coffee house close to Mobile Tech Manor except for the big chains. I sure will miss their Vietnamese Grilled Pork sandwiches. I guess it’s hard for the little guys to compete against the big boys.
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