The original Café Diva was at 12th and Spruce, Center City Philadelphia. In 1992 and early 1993, I lived right across the street in a small attic flat at 1220 Spruce Street. Nga Mai was the proprietor; it was the last place where I played a full game of chess. There were books to read, there was good coffee and there were tasty sandwiches. Lots of people liked to hang out there. The second incarnation was at 140 S. 20th Street, Rittenhouse Square.
Are there any places you used to frequent that no longer exist in anything but memory and photographs?
Today's Rune: Initiation.
6 comments:
I always wanted to have a local coffee house nearby where people played chess. alas, has never happened, though I used to play at a local MacDonald's some time.
When I was in my twenties I used to frequent a bar called "My Place." It was a two-story house on 9 Mile, just off of Gratiot. They had a slide that went from the 2nd floor to the 1st.
I'm going to see Blondie / Cheap Trick this month with some old friends. Should be fun.
I hate to admit it, but there are probably more places that "used to be" for me than those that "still are," particularly in this economy...
OH yes! I loved to visit an old bar that never had more than a few people there in it. It always had a card game going on. That was way before Bill Gates was born and before people thought pictures could travel from Point A to Point B through the air.
But the places you describe are dreams. I dreamed of them before and had some old time treats there but never in real life.
There are a bunch here in Chicago. One that comes immediately to mind is Gaspar's, at Southport and Belmont, where all the punk bands used to play when they came to Chicago. The bands played in the back of the house, and the front was an old-fashioned bar that was a terrific place to take a date. It's still a club, a nice one, Schuba's, where bands play and they now serve food, but I miss Gaspar's.
The list is too long. Sad. There used to be a place on Mack Avenue below Moross where the menu was on a pillow they tossed to you. My kids loved that place.
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