Today, I met some good friends from college for some brunch and some good old catching up. I hopped on the train and met them in Logan Square at a little place called the “Cozy Corner Diner and Pancake”. It was a tiny little place where the flat iron grill was right on the other side of the cash register. There were people crammed around the entrance waiting for tables. On the grill, I was doing a frenzied “Bourbon County Shuffle” from the night before, and the sight of the food was something glorious.
Anyways, I give the place a heavy recommendation, but it’s not the point of this blabbering. After we had a nice brunch, we headed into Bucktown originally looking for some Dairy Queen. Yeah… go figure, it was 6 degrees out before the windchill and we wanted ice cream. Dairy Queen was closed, so we decided to cross the street to the coffee shop, where they served warm things. The coffee shop and grocery is called Goddess, and it’s located at the 1600 block of Damen. It’s your classic cozy, quaint coffee shop, but it also has a huge selection of micro brew beer, bookshelf wines, and really delicious looking home made food items.
The coffee stuff that we ordered took a few minutes too make. It wasn’t your classic, 2 minute, in and out, “what’s your name so I can write in on a paper cup so that we can give you the impression that we’re being hospitable”, type of coffee shop experience. You could even say that if you had come into this place yesterday, ordered a latte, and then ordered the same exact thing today, that it would be a bit wrong of you too expect the exact same thing. But isn’t that part of the beauty of it all?
These days, I believe we have began to enjoy consistency and instant gratification too much. I will be the first to admit, that when I’m at work, and I’m jonsin’ for a coffee fix, and I’ve only got 5 minutes to spare, with no shame, I’ll walk into Starbucks with no shame. It gets the job done, and the drink is pretty damned good. But I think back to San Diego, when I was living in Point Loma next to the Living Room Coffee House, there wasn’t a chance in hell you could convince me to go to Starbucks instead. I knew the staff, there was art on the wall from local artist, and you could usually expect to run into your friends or neighbors. The person who made the money that you spent at the place, was one of your neighbors and you could appreciate the fact that you were spending your hard earned money on a place that was one of a kind and brought a unique experience to your neighborhood.
I feel like the more corporate, and instant gratification our society becomes, the more we are losing the character and the experiences that make the different neighborhoods of our country (and possibly down the line, the world) unique. What separates a neighborhood like Solona Beach in San Diego, and Wicker Park in Chicago? Yes, about 60 degrees in the month of January, but it’s also the things in those neighborhoods that are one of a kind. In Solona Beach, there’s Pizza Port; a micro brewery that offers one of a kind beer, one of a kind California style pizza, and an atmosphere that draws a packed house nearly every night. In Wicker Park, there’s Piece, (or the artist formally known as piece being that they are only known by the symbol on the building awning). Piece is a similar beast… hand crafted beer, hand crafted pizza and a hand crafted atmosphere. There is also a California Pizza Kitchen within a few miles of each of these establishments if, rather than celebrate the little unique offerings that each place has to offer, you’re looking to fulfill your expectations for the same, repetitive offerings.
I’m not going to head out on the streets tomorrow with my poster board and sit in from of Starbucks to protest people’s choice to enjoy coffee from where they want to enjoy coffee from, and I’ll probably make my way to Chipotle once or twice this week to enjoy my favorite “fast food” offering, and I don’t mean to belittle anyone who enjoys some CPK tonight, but I do believe that we should all make the effort to support the local businesses that are all around us, as often as we can.
Not only is it true that someone in your neighborhood will benefit greatly if you decide to visit the local hardware store instead of heading off to home depot to save a few bucks on nails and a hammer, but the corporation that is taking place in our society, is something that is taking away from our neighborhoods and communities. The rewards of shopping at your local business; supporting your community, enjoying a one of a kind experience, and helping to insure that someone who visits your neighborhood will remember it for the things that made it different, far outweigh the rewards of supporting the corporate, repetitive giants that I believe are watering down our society. Frankly, I think the corporate takeover of our society is a problem, but it’s not one that is really that hard to fix.
So I ask us all, in the name of community and the one of a kind experiences that make life such an enjoyable ride, support your local ________________.
