My all-time favorite place to drink coffee, talk and feel comfortable, Alt.Coffee is closing soon. I've never felt so comfortable anywhere. The place looks like a storm hit an old computer store -- the computers are mounted on old stereos, there's a pinball machine and the couches are hand-me downs. You can sit for hours with an excellent cup of coffee and talk to someone genuinely interesting. I met the author of an incredible book on germ warfare, Dan Barenblatt, just idling over research at the next table.
I took Karen here and while she thought it was dirty and preferred the place a block away, we got work done and she saw my point about the place.
The coffee bar is tended by artists -- of ages close to mine. It feels like a dream venture. A coffee place by artists for artists.
Yes, it's dusty and dirty. I never feel overdressed. That's the point. It's about aesthetics.
It's also about a place for people with good degrees to get together and feel comfortable in the dust of their books and the ink of their pens. It's okay to be older and still go to the library for something other than bestsellers.
If my generation can no longer sustain a coffee shop it is not because we are having babies. The place is packed with people who do not. It's because our jobs are being downsized, the academy is becoming a place for adjuncts only and only tourists go to Broadway.
More about this later.
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