turkish coffee and a cigarette : on cafe culture and my goals
ever since graduating high school, i find that im asking myself more and more the question of what i want to do with my life when im older. maybe its just the monotonous job getting to me, or school deadlines causing me to break, whatever it is, i think its a valid side thought to keep me in check as i get older.
i often joke with my friends that my ten year plan is to probably burn myself out by 30, then retreat to the village my grandfather was born in. living a semi secluded lifestyle in the woods, farming, tending to animals, hunting. ive always been entranced by the village he grew up in, how he and my grandmother lived out the periods of early spring to late fall in such an isolated region. i wont say its easy work, i hated working with him in the fields during the summers when id visit as a kid. its a thought i have often, but i know that i probably would never truely go through with it. my limit would be a rural village, and not the true
as of the past year, probably the biggest goal or journey ive set myself on is opening a cafe. ive been told its the equivalent of 20 year olds going to san francisco to work in tech companies, but for 20 something year old bisexuals.
but listen, when i talk about opening a cafe, im not speaking in regards to these hipster 9$ oat milk whatevers. there are enough bad things in the world, i dont need to add more to that count. however nicely decorated a cafe is, however good and expensive the coffee is, they wont compare to mine.
my senior year business class final project encapsulates it all, i want to open a classic eastern european style cafe. one where people can spend 5 minutes or 5 hours in. one where two teenagers run everything while the boss (me in this scenario) brings his friends and comps their meals. each table lined with an ashtray and a fading menu help up by a shitty brand covered menu holder. this is my peace.
i watched a youtube video about third spaces at work this morning. in a nutshell, third spaces are communal spaces that lie outside of work and home. places where communities join together and get to know eachother. i want my cafe to be this. a third space. maybe this goal is built out of my own desire for a proper third space. i try to fill the need for this third space by visiting the same cafe all the time, but i find that my experience here is nowhere near the same as when i visit cafes with my brothers back home.
i want my cafe to be somewhere where people go to by habit, rather than out of necessity. somewhere people gather in mornings before work, stop by during their breaks, convene after work. i wont allow people to camp out with laptops, nor will the cafe have decent wifi. you dont get to come here alone and waste my seating. if you come alone, youll either sit and people watch, or you leave.
rather than focus on selling some complex and organically sourced coffee something something, i want to make the space the selling point. we have our simple espresso based drinks and turkish coffee. thats all. you get sugar cubes and a small cup of milk if need be. the need to flavor coffee, add cold foam, extract the shots a certain way, it is all a marketing ploy. coffee should be paired with conversation, rather than be enjoyed alone.
anyways, thats all i have to babble about. below is a picture of what i want my cafe to resemble. i love the vibe.
