My thought is that whatever is your favorite music, that's what's playing on the jukebox. Classical, rock, jazz, blues, country, you name it, we've got it.
In my mind this place is a cross between several places I've loved in my life.
One is my grandmother's cafe in Biloxi. It was at the intersection of Bayview Street, that ran along the Back Bay, and Porter Avenue, which was one of the main drags, and it was catty-corner to the Back Bay Bridge, so the place was always full of fishermen and truck drivers. There were two long formica counters that each went half the length of the place, with those round stools on chromed pedestals that you could spin all the way around. The left side was the lunch counter, and was busy during the day, and the right side was the bar, and was busy at night. There was a huge mirror behind the bar, and dozens of bottles of different liquors in front of the mirror. And there were red naugahyde booths along the walls, and in the middle there were formica dinette tables and chromed dinette chairs with red naugahyde seats. And she had neon signs in the windows and a big neon sign on the roof - Perry's Cafe. Perry was her last name, and the customers all called her husband Perry and her Mrs. Perry. They all loved her because she liked to tell jokes and always laughed really loud when they told her jokes. She was very pretty, and always had her hair done up and always wore Revlon Fire and Ice lipstick and nail polish - red red. She smoked those cigarettes with the pastel colored papers and gold paper around the filter, and the filters always got red lipstick on them when she smoked. The food was pretty good, too - the french fries were fresh cut, never frozen. She had a lot of regular customers, people she treated like family, who came in every day.
Another place I have in mind is a coffee shop in uptown New Orleans - I can't remember the name now, but the guy who owned it was an old hippy/beatnik type who wrote poetry, and had open mike poetry readings. The tables and chairs were the type of thing you get at the Salvation army, and there were cushions on the floor, too. There were racks of newspapers and books to read, and you could stay as long as you wanted and keep getting refills. I don't think he made much money, but he was the type of guy who didn't need much money, and just liked hanging out there himself.
Another place I have in mind is the Maple Leaf Bar in New Orleans, which had live jazz concerts at night, but in the daytime was where the poets and writers and photographers and painters hung out - the ones who liked to drink during the day. When I used to go there, it had a laundromat - the only place I know where you could do your laundry while you had a beer and listened to the jukebox.
Another place I have in mind is the Hummingbird Grill, a restaurant in New Orleans that was in what used to be the wino district, near the docks and the central business district, and was open 24 hours a day. The food was good and cheap, and it was always packed with sailors, hookers, winos and blue collar workers.
I don't know anyplace like that in Northern Virginia, places where the owner and the customers develop relationships, and the customers become friends with each other, where you are welcome to spend time and hang out. Well, there is the courthouse cafeteria, I do hang there from time to time and BS with other lawyers, court reporters, title examiners, translators, clerks, and the occasional judge, but the coffee sucks. -g- |
