Sweet and Sour Sixteenth
Walking along 16th Street the other day, I ran across two cafes that opened just recently.
At 3463 16th Street where the old (very old) Anniversary Flowers & Gifts stood, there is now a bright and shiny new cafe called Kapé. From the outside it looks quite nice -- big overstuffed sofas and chairs, marbled-topped cafe tables, and big glass windows. At risk of sounding offensive, it definitely looks like an older gay man designed this, and I swear I mean that in a positive way. (But come on, you know what I mean.)
Here's a photo of what the space looked like just a couple months ago:
That's the "sweet" in the blog title. The "sour" part is just a block away at 3506 16th, another new cafe which seems much less put-together. Cutely named Sixteen Sweets, it was oddly shut on a weekend afternoon last week. At first I assumed it was still under construction, but looking through the windows it looks like it is in business already, with the refrigerator case stocked with soda cans and a full set of furniture. But the inside was a dump, dirty and cluttered, so I'm still unsure of the store's status. Can anyone tell me if this cafe is still coming, already going, or just always a mess? Here's a picture of the place today:
It didn't help that there was a homeless encampment right in front of the store. Two people, sleeping bags, multiple shopping carts, various detritus of urban life. I half-expected them to have a welcome mat and mailbox.
Like Kapé above, this coffeeshop is fairly new -- no more than a couple of months old. On the same day that I took the "before" picture above, I took this photo of the failed store which used to be in this space:
Mak's Gifts was a strange gift shop which specialized in cute tchotchkes and stationery goods direct-imported from , most of it apparently pirated in the most obvious and gross way imaginable. I mean, I'm no fan of piracy in general, but if you are going to do it, at least be a little clever. This shop featured what appeared to be pirated Mickey Mouses, Snoopys, and Hello Kittys that were so misshapen and grotesque they would have done Dali proud. At that point, why bother pirating? If your drawing barely looks like Tweety Bird, then just make up some other name and call it an original. That's what most drag queens do, isn't it?
