Password protected, free wireless
by Chantelle Belle ~ September 12th, 2010. Filed under: Commerical Dr/ Main Street.Gene Coffeebar
Sunday, September 12th
11:03am
Converse sneakers tucked beneath thick-rimmed glasses. Plaid shirts. Art mags.
Free range organic eggs breakfast wrap, $5.50.
A pie-sliced building with minimalist décor and detached coolness. A designer barista stands at the counter tending to a steady stream of customers. On occasion she abandons her post to collect dishes.
Concrete floors intersect with white walls. A small refrigerator is stocked with glass bottles of water. Condensation forming along the windows that provide a panoramic view of Mount Pleasant’s three corners – Community centre meets coffee bar meets porn theatre.
A disaffected crowd with the occasional out-of-place patron. Students. Young couples. Beards. Long wooden tables where strangers sit elbow-to-elbow on white stools and bench seats. Accompanied by designer lattes, customers are fixated on their Macbooks, their textbooks, their novels. A man with a camera draped around his neck browses through Google Images. Password protected, free wireless.
Wet cars idle at red lights. Clinking-cups-on-saucers. Classical music whispers in the background. A shrill operatic voice interrupted by a loud sneeze. A man reading “What the Bleep do We Know” looks up for a moment, a heightened sense of awareness fuelled by organic, fair trade coffee.
A pair of children sit across from each other. The young boy adjusts his messenger bag. The girl flips through the pages of “The Usborne Little Book of Chocolate.” They share a cookie and sip on San Pellegrino. Dad steals a photo with his iPhone and Mom brings them a plate with two croissants. She promises the other patrons, “Don’t worry, they’re well trained.”
September 12th, 2010 at 3:30 pm
The image in the last paragraph is perfect. Great job!