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.
