Editorial: Diversity

Nancy Ketchman, a thoughtful reader, submitted this inquiry:

I wanted to add to your list of RIP coffee shops.  Did you ever go to Beanhead Cafe on MLK Jr.?  It opened about 4 or 5 years ago to much excitement in the Brewers Hill neighborhood.  It was in a remodelled, historic building (former site of a tea shop).  It had a great vibe to it, cool music, and was racially and economically diverse crowd (which, as you no doubt have observed, is very rare in coffee shops around Milwaukee).  Many people I know visited Beanhead with great expectations.  Unfortunately, the service itself and the coffee was not so great.  Beanhead was closed when it was supposed to be open, took forever just to get your order, and they charged a lot for substandard food (e.g. storebought cookies as in from Pick n Save brought in!!). Sadly but not unexpectedly, they closed within a year or so.  It was so sad 'cuz it was a very cool space and -- had the service and quality and prices been at least average -- would have thrived.  Sigh. 

 

Here's my question to you:  which coffee shop, in your opinion, comes as close as possible to Beanhead in terms of racial and economic diversity?   

My response: tough one.  I have to try not to reply with my instinctive response, as I don't drive across town to visit different coffeehouses, nor do I ever really find myself "just in the neighborhood".  There are pretty much ruts in the road (or hiking trail) between my apartment, my office, and the various East Side/Riverwest/Bayshore area coffee shops.

With that qualifier out of the way, my response is that to frequent coffeehouses, you pretty much gotta have money to burn.  From a purely financial standpoint, buying coffeehouse coffee makes about as much sense as burning a $5 bill just to watch the flames.  I've also formulated the thought lately that liberals go to Alterra (not only, but most especially) to kind of practice their liberalism.  In the same way that the seating areas in Starbucks exist largely as an illusion--you're buying the illusion that you have time to sit there--liberals go to Alterra to purchase a little of the cred offered by the tatooed and pierced barista, who, no doubt, is pursuing various forms of alternative lifestyles while the customer sits in his or her cubicle working for the man.