One of my Favourite Coffee Shops Has Closed Down

This is a Moanery Lane OF SORTS I guess?

I saw the news on Instagram this morning, and immediately felt an acrid combination of disappointment, anger and, yes, shame.

Disappointment because, how could this happen? Anger because, how could I just be reading about this on Instagram, of all places? (As if the proprietors should have contacted me directly: hey, Rosemary, you’ve been here maybe a dozen times, so we thought we’d give you a heads up!) And shame that I’ve been drinking cheap, shitty coffee from other coffee shops when I could – I should! – have been taking an extra 10 minutes to drive downtown and get it from them.

It’s not that I haven’t meant to go more often; I make plans, at least once a week, to drive downtown, park near GK, pop in for a coffee and the only good croissant in Fort Wayne, then wander around the corner to the library, where Atlas loves nothing more than to play with a whole host of toys he has at home, with children he doesn’t know and will never see again.

They hold a storytime each day at 10am; a member of the children’s library staff will gather attendees in their storytime room and read books, play music, hand out props and teach dance moves to the kids, who range in age from crawlers to toddlers and slightly beyond.

Atlas has no interest in following directions, and he simply will not do the dance they’re teaching. Instead, he does a dance of his own, in the style of your farmer neighbour at the local GAA club, a h-aon, dó, trí, to the beat of the music.

He loves GK’s croissants, but above all else, he loves your GK croissants; once he has polished off his own, he will reach across the table with a covetous hand. “My!” he’ll shout, at increasing volume, until you give in and hand over the flaky, layered pastry.

Sometimes, I resign myself to its loss, but mostly, I go up to the counter and get another. “Stay here,” I tell him, feebly, as I walk the six feet to make my order. He knows as well as I do that, should he decide, he could simply climb out of the high chair and run around the shop, as he has done on more than one occasion, until he is caught, laughing and squealing, and strapped firmly back into his buggy.

That we haven’t gone in months is down to, I think, a combination of factors: his speech and occupational therapy schedule has felt quite rigorous, and limited time for anything else; on days I’ve planned to go, it’s rained, or been too hot, or we’ve both woken up too late, so that we’d miss storytime; I worry that I won’t be able to walk the short distance from GK to the library, and I can’t quite face the idea of driving three blocks, even though I know that, on that front at least, I need to accept defeat.

Walking, or standing, for any time at all, now causes me a lot of pain, enough at least that I should be able to accept my sedentary lifestyle for what it is – a necessity. I wonder if I’d feel differently if I hadn’t always felt my slovenliness so closely tied to my fatness, and therefore transferred the shame I felt about the latter on to the former. I GUESS I’LL NEVER KNOW!

Anyway, the long and short if it is that I haven’t been to GK as often as I’d like – or as often as I’d planned to. I’ve been spending my money on other, less good, coffee, from coffee shops whose survival I truly don’t care about.

gkcafeandprovisions

A post shared by @gkcafeandprovisions

I’m under no illusions that my patronage alone would have saved GK. Rents are up, the cost of raw materials is up, the price of groceries is up, and I’m sure that all has a knock-on effect not just on the cost of doing business but also on the likelihood that someone wandering by your cute downtown grocery store will mosey on in and buy, on a whim, a bottle of $12.50 spicy honey, or some artisan cheese.

But it has made me think that I need to try harder to support the businesses I love with, well, my business.

What business closure has bothered you most, over the last 10 or so years? (GK might have to tie for #1 on my list alongside Crackbird, whose soy garlic chicken I still think about at least three times a week. I even DMed the owner, Joe Macken, on Instagram, asking for the recipe, which he would not give up –although he did promise to make it for me next time I’m home, which is, I guess, better than nothing…)