Café

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Saturday night brought my (David’s) first Saturday Night Ride since January. Despite it being moderately lengthy, my body suffered surprisingly little from it. I enjoyed the ride back to St. Paul with Nick, where we chased down and humiliated a party of expletive users in a car, and then shared stories with each other of similar occurrences.

Sunday morning I woke up completely devoid of muscle aches and joint stiffness. However I did have a rather harsh caffeine withdrawal headache. I was full of expletives myself when I discovered that I had already used every remaining granule of coffee in the house. So I had to go out in search of a cure. I opted to drive, as I knew my first choice or two would likely be closed seeing as how it was Easter Sunday. It was a wise choice; Swede Hallow Café, that place on Maria and 6th, Black Dog, Magic Carpet, the empty space that used to be a coffee shop on 9th and Robert, they were all closed. I even kept my eye peeled for greasy spoon breakfast joints in the neighborhood that I had yet to discover. For a minute I had considered getting breakfast accompanied by a low-grade cup-o-joe at Café Del Sol (the only place that appeared to be open), but apart from huevos rancheros I had no idea what might be on their breakfast menu.

With disappointment in every direction, I eventually decided on convenience store coffee. What I learned from this experience (apart from it being bad to run out of coffee on Easter Sunday – even if we still lived above a kosher deli I would have been screwed) is that the neighborhood is severely lacking in mom and pop breakfast joints. In the old neighborhood we had 3 such places within walking distance and many more a mere short drive away. In our neighborhood one would have to travel to Payne and Maryland or go downtown to Keys or Mickey’s if one wanted a short stack and a side of hashbrowns (and coffee). So if anyone out there has been considering starting a restaurant but has been deterred by the saturated market in other areas of the twin cities, then try Dayton’s bluff. We’ve got plenty of attractive commercial buildings for sale or rent, and you would have no competition in the AM hours.