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Starkweather Beer Company

 When I moved back to Madison to attend law school in 1987, we moved to a crappy little apartment near the banks of Starkweather Creek on the unfashionable east side.  Today, the east side is booming, and one of the newer brewpubs is called Starkweather Beer Company. It was Saint Pat's Day.  While Guinness is a decent light-bodied stout, I opted for Starkweather's dry Irish Stout, named "Jamestown Jackdaw." Coming in at 5.9 ABV, it had a malty chewable backbone.  It's a new favorite stout for me.  Julia had Late Winter Haze, a New England IPA that didn't have as much fruitiness as she likes in a hazy.  It was still well-executed. We walked down the street to the Harmony Bar, where Julia enjoyed a complete corn beef and cabbage dinner.  I opted for the Reuben sandwich.  Mine was washed down with an Edmund Fitzgerald porter from Great Lakes Brewing.  Julia enjoyed her Chaos Pattern IPA from 3 Sheeps Brewing.  Both are great beers. Justin update:   After a long h

Some Rent is Better than No Rent

 

The Mills Block building on Lodi's Main Street was built in 1895 and has a storied past.  This photo is from today, and you can see that it's currently for rent again.  The vacant left side  is where I operated my coffeeshop.  The roaster was in the back.  A Mexican restaurant is currently on the right side.  When I was there, it was a Chinese restaurant and later a bar. 

The building has historically had trouble keeping tenants. That worked in my favor to negotiate and write a one-sided long term lease with escalating but still cheap rent, including all utilities.  I made the argument that some rent was better than none.  Once I was established, I could afford to pay a little more.   

The coffeeshop stuck around for about 12 years--seven years after I sold it.  When the lease expired, new owners wrote a new lease with much higher rent payments.  Subsequent tenants have struggled.  Some rent is better than no rent, especially in a small town where vacant buildings languish.   

I went out for breakfast with a friend who told me that the building is for sale again.  One of the potential new owners has restoration plans. I hope it works out. I have fond memories of the space.

I was always an early riser, but it was here that I arrived at at 5:15 a.m. every morning for five years.  I officially turned on the open sign at 6 a.m.  On warm summer days, I would leave the front and back doors open and turn the commercial kitchen fans on high to bring in the cool fresh air.

Often guys would start trickling in around 5:45 a.m. to sit at what they called "the smart table."    The smart table was actually a cluster of tables near the cash register and consisted of mostly middle-aged to older  guys and a few women.   They would buy bottomless cups for $2 and solve problems, globally and locally, for the rest of us. 


Comments

MFH said…
Interesting you did this; I took pictures yesterday of the building where I had my gallery and was gonna post in the next few days.

Sounds as if your shop really brought something to the community.
John said…
I've been meaning to do a post on this for awhile. The Protein/nutrition drink shop finished moving out last week, so it seemed like a good time for it.

No one had tried a specialty coffee shop in our community, and lots of people predicted my failure. One old guy from the diner in town came in and told me to my face that the town didn't need a fancy coffee shop.

It turned out all right. As a community space, it worked wonderfully. All hardwood floors, tall ceilings, comfortable tables with wood chairs. Due to the favorable lease, long personal hours, and economies of roasting the coffee myself, I never lost money even in the first year when Main street was closed due to road construction. I never made a lot of money either. With annual growth, I was able to hire more staff and eventually could sit at the smart table at times with customers who had become friends.

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