Coffee Revival

For much of my suburban life, the preference of most consumers has been to drive to shops on major roads rather than walk to shops in back-streets. As a result, the former thrived at the expense of that latter. A case-in-point is a set of back-street shops close to the Scotchman's Creek. For a long time they comprised a functioning but sleepy milkbar, a few accountants hiding behind venetian blinds, and a few more permanenty vacant stores. I never saw them in the heyday I assume they had once had. They were nothing like my imaginary seven shops. But sometimes truth can be stranger than fiction and those local shops have turned into something distinctive.

It all started with the final closure of that old milkbar. I had sort of been expecting this since the 'servo' has become the contemporary convenience store and there's a major intersection pretty close by. But another time I walked that way, I noticed the milkbar was now a trendy and busy cafe. The vibe there stood in sharp contrast to the sedate residential streets. Within a matter of months more shops opened in those empty structures. Now we have an art gallery, an ornaments and decor store, a music academy, a pet products store, a computer repairer, an activeware shop, and there is still an accountant.

Oh, and there's a second cafe, this one specializing in home-made vegetarian food. The operators do far more than that, however, and seem intent on fostering personal connections between locals, whether by facilitating chatter over food or hosting open mike evenings. My contributions so far have been to recite some poetry and read a very short story of mine. I think they have me pegged as something of a comedian, which I dispute. Anyway, this is a welcome addition to my life, particularly since friends stopped hosting soirées some time ago, and I wonder at the vibrant growth of a set of back-street shops.

Coffee seems to be the answer. We have shifted this century into a culture that expects someone close to home to make a decent coffee for us. This want has become a seeming need. Once we visit a cafe we then take interest in other shops and start spending there too. Pandemic may have boosted this localism but the trend can be traced back further than that. It works well for me, as a walker, and I hope this trend will become a fixture of our lives.