I see I'm not the only one who presses her nose to vacant storefront windows and lets her imagination go wild! OK fellow dreamers, here's another storefront for you.
For years it held a legendary used bookstore, but now it sits vacant. Its neighbors include an avant-garde-nouveau-hip-chic Japanese noodle bar with fancy lighting and uncomfortable chairs. Beyond that, soon to open, is a French bistro that replaces..wait for it...another French bistro that just closed. Parking is rather lousy, but the neighborhood is good, and you'd have a good amount of walk-in traffic from folks who walk to work. (Do people even walk to work anymore? Never mind. This is Claralandia. We get to make our own rules, remember?)
So, what would you put here? In my dreams, it's a greengrocer with fresh produce and flowers up front, tall shelves stocked with jams and jellies, pastes and condiments, staple foods and luxury yuppie foods that make you feel all sassy and worldly when you buy them. (Not to mention poorer.) And in the back, or perhaps along one side, you'd have a small and efficiently organized kitchen from which food-loving people create all your favorite comfort foods, which are then packaged and placed in a cooler so you can pick them up, take them home, heat them up, eat them, and feel like, well, ok, you didn't manage to make a meal for yourself, but you supported someone really good who did. Oh, and did I mention the apothecary jars of Claramels by the register?
How about you? What do you see?
I see people sitting at tables adorned with a flickering candle in the center and cotton placemats. On the placemats are steaming bowls of soup that change daily, plates of fresh bread and cheese, and seasonal fruit desserts. It's simple but it's my dream.
ReplyDeleteI see a canvas awning with flower boxes on each window filled with the season’s best and in script lettering on the windows “STASH IN THE ATTIC” and the windows are decorated for the season with skeins of yarn, baskets, wooden needles, fuzzy sheep and books. Inside is a long pine table for mingling, knitting, chatting and classes. There is a fireplace in a corner with chairs around it for mingling, knitting, chatting or just book browsing. Shelves and shelves of yarn along two of the walls and bookcases filled with books pertaining to all things knitterly on the remaining wall. Coffee & teas are provided as well as the occasional homemade scone, cookie or dessert of the day and an apothecary jar of claramels!
ReplyDeleteFirst time posting, to say that I live two blocks from there, and truly miss the bookstore every time I walk downtown. I (of course) see an elegant, multi-disciplinary yarn store, with spinning wheels and looms set out in the windows to catch the evening sun; a quiet nook full of fiber books and an overstuffed armchair; a cabinet stuffed full of every kind of tea; and a store cat. There has to be a store cat!
ReplyDeleteSherryl just described the dream I was going to post about.
ReplyDeleteWhy do I have a feeling that you might be shopping for more than a dream location, Miss Clara?
An Italian restaurant - simple foods, well prepared, served family style. I see a place that celebrates food, family, and life in general. And art yarn and fairy lights would hang in the windows as curtains.
ReplyDeleteYears ago my daughter and I watched Gilmore Girls religiously. It took place in Stars Hollow, a small town with quirky, interconnected people of various ages, and talents. I loved that town with it's cast of characters and when I looked at the storefront picture, I was transported right there. Like Clara, I see it as a small food shop, with fresh produce and homemade food, all from scratch. Coffee would be fresh and hot as would be the tea, overflowing from huge mugs. There are tables and comfortable chairs.
ReplyDeleteThe town troubador would be outside, and the town square is across the street. Of course, there are flowers outside and weather permitting people sit outside and linger.
As they leave, they get a thank you Claramel, and all is right in this fantasy world of mine on the corner.
I see it as an independent cozy coffee shop where regulars come to hang out with their knitting, great books to read, laptops to write the next great american novel and friends visit over a great espresso.
ReplyDeleteAn old-fashioned apothecary (that would soon go out of business)? I'm kind of drawing a blank, but your post reminded me of an article I read recently about the last remaining hat shop in the Swedish city I once lived in. At one point in the 1930s there were 11 hat shops there, 11! I don't know what the population was then, but when I lived there in the 1990s it was under 100K.
ReplyDelete