I miss the Smithfield.

I suggest that the former Quizno's site would be perfect for such an establihment.

What surprised me about the YesYes! was how long it lasted, actually. I never could understand how a downtown business location could afford to stay open that long with so little obvious revenue. Someone must have been a Sugarmama or Sugardaddy to that place... and to them I must tip my hat, 'cuz I am POOR this month.

The old Java Flow by the transit center was not bad for the things you mentioned, way over priced, to be sure, but in the right spirit. I guess it all comes down to the fact that retail space is just so expensive in Oly and you have to gouge the people just to make your nut. Same thing goes with the Farmer's Market. Cherries in particular. I can get the exact same cherries for half the price at some road side stands. Even in Hawks Prairie I can get them for at least a buck a pound less. Sadly, Oly is an expensive place to do business and an easy place to get poorer. I think B&B has become kind of sucky but it beats the alternative. Maybe the best thing to do is to set up a tax exempt non profit to set up such a facility, with the social services as the emphasis, and the buck a coffee and crepe as the funding mechanism.

We need a best local blog contest so I can vote for this blog.

maybe a takeover of an existing coffee shop is what we need. Want an open mic night? Let the owners know, maybe they'll let you host one. I'm sure if enough people got together and pressed for changes then changes would be made.

I remember performing at Last Word Books when they were doing the spoken word open mic nights. It was amazing, but fizzled out after a month or two. Why not a weekly cheap coffee, tea, and poetry night at Last Word?

Your description also reminded me of a little bit of journalism history. Public Houses (also called Pubs) were places travellers would go to rest, eat, drink, gossip, etc. There was usually a log book on the bar where people would write about things happening wherever they were coming from. This is credited as being the beginning of journalism, and that's interesting because it's also a prime example of citizen journalism.

I guess that journalism can take many forms, this blog being a prime example. If we are to continue the tradition of having pubs or coffee shops as hubs of journalism, we have to first design them as such. A stack of Seattle Weeklys or the Stranger does not make it such a hub. Certainly the Olympian or Tacoma Tribune do not make it such. Quite simply a non-print journalism establishment has to foster conversation, more to the point conversation has to be the reason the establishment exists. The conversations should include all points of view. I understand it might not be fun being in a coffee shop with the likes of Walking Eagle, but I imagine that Walking Eagle would not frequent such a place. Indeed, what we would have is a diversity of like minded, yet totally independant thinkers that bring to the table a true exchange of ideas. Diverse opinions often lead to the truth, paradox and contradiction are often our best teachers.

We are constantly exposed to the truth. Often one truth is the opposite of another truth in regards the same issue or event. Diogenes spent a life searching for the "honest man". We spend our lives elevating one truth over another. Most of the time we don't know what the truth is. I suppose the truth is something we are expected to accept. I can only offer this bit of advice in seeking truth. More often than not the truth and the lie are both the same thing. Perhaps it is how the truth is used. Martin Luther King said, "the opposite of the truth is the gesture". If the truth seems like a gesture it probably is entirely opposite of the truth.

I know that this thread has gotten away from the initial point of getting a good cup of java in what is considered appropriate surrounding at a reasonable cost. We have, however, accomplished what is supposed to happen in such a place, and that is to have this conversation. Laptops have their place in coffee shops, to be sure, but the real reason for having a coffee shop is to foster the conversation.

I miss Olympia World News. It was all ages, with a bar upstairs, lots of reading and hanging out space, amusements (magazines and newspapers) and there is nowhere like this in Olympia now. Bars don't count. At all. That includes Le Voyeur. At a bar, the setting in condusive to drinking, and if you want to hang out somewhere after 8 in this town, there are either bars or 24-hour diners, such as Ribeye, Shari's, Denny's, etc. Those diners can work, but it is not the same as something like Olympia World News, which I remember being open pretty late, and it was way cool. Even besides bars, during the day there aren't many places. We have Cafe Vita, Ottos's, and Batdork and Bronson, but while these places are nice and good for hanging out, it just isn't the same as Olympia World News, which was spacious and could have many functions and uses. Mostly I just wish there was a place to hang out after nine that wasn't a drinking establishment.

I miss the Bull Dog News. I know it was a chain but it represented something good in Olympia for me. Before I moved to Olympia I would make a monthly pilgrimage to Olympia to fill up 8 5 gallon bottles of water at the well, head to Bull Dog News for the latest zines and wind up at Fish Tale. That was my entre to Olympia. Couple that with a trip to Browsers and Orcas book and I couldn't have a better day.

I loved Cafe Vita summer 2003, except the coffee. I haven't found coffee I like in Olympia. It's too weak! I used to like coffee in San Francisco, Berkeley, Palo Alto. It was Peet's Coffee. UMMMMMM. French roast with oil drenched beans. I think they have it at Top Foods now.

They let my dog come inside to order coffee too LOL. And I love oatmeal raisin cookies. There used to be a young rapper who would rap for a smoke. I always gave him two. And there was a homeless carnie passing through town who told the most wonderful stories. It was one wonderful summer, the first summer I lived downtown.

I think we ought to put the new coffee shop on 4th Ave. with all the bustle, lots of outdoor tables. Then we old girls get to watch wistfully the harleys going by haha.

I used to write on napkins at Cafe Vita, just random lines, many lost forever when I mistook them for kleenex. I'll put a poem on my blog though that I wrote to a sunset at the bottom of the 4th street hill.