Four Corners Update

I have been watching the emptiness of the Four Corners on 12th & A for about a year (but it feels like longer). In reverse chronological order: Here and here and here and here and here

Now that OST, the coffee shop, is open, attracting students who need to type and do homework in public, and the deli on the corner with its high school students who need sandwiches, that leaves the corner that burned down (note: they've been working on the roof of that building in the snow!), and the corner with the pricey burgers, Kool Blue.

But will it be a Kool Blue restaurant? No. In its third incarnation of unopened restaurants, there is now a sign with a steamy cup of coffee called Table 12, cleverly named for the street it is on. I was going to go into Kool Blue, which remains with their back door open and a hand written sign pronouncing them open, stuck on the door with scotch tape, and ask them about it, but I remembered the last time I went in there to ask about the restaurant and it was not pleasant.

Kool Blue has been marketing their food very meticulously. Last week, every resident got a personal menu hanging from a string on their doorknob. None of this shoving menus under the door nonsense, this is high class marketing on a string. I'm thinking that they had to keep the workers busy since there are always 2-3 people in there, but no customers, so they had them punch holes in menus and string them. I am honestly not complaining, a job is a job, and I am glad they have them. Everybody should feel fortunate to have a job right now.

So we will have another coffee shop to compete with OST, which seems the right way to go considering the other 3 coffee shops in this part of town have closed, and OST is always packed. I am concerned about the late night crowd. Will it be as rowdy as The Cock, their precessor, which was only rowdy about once a month? And when will they apply for their liquor license? We shall be watching the CB3 agendas to find out. They are not on the list for the March meeting.

And now for my going off on a tangent: the swirl of steam rising from the coffee cup reminds me of my ex-stalker, Griswald, who was a book cover artist. Once, when he lured me and my husband (then boyfriend) into his apartment, he showed us his book art, and the one I remember the most had a steamy cup of coffee on the cover. He spoke at length about how he painted that steam, and how sexy he thought it was, the curve of the heat.