The Basics:
About Emdashes | Email us
Best of Emdashes: Hit Parade
A Web Comic: The Wavy Rule
Features & Columns:
Headline Shooter
On the Spot
Looked Into
Our not-so-far-flung correspondent T.D.V. writes:
I was just reading the Talks of the Town for the 1/09 issue, and, fearing that the item about Harlem's only Starbucks being at 125th and Lenox was false, I embarked upon an intelligence mission. I used to pass one on Broadway near 138th on my way out of the 137th St. City College 1-train stop. I read an article a while back about how all of the local drug dealers, who were standing outside all day, used the restrooms frequently and were excellent tippers. I found an item online [link TK from probably sleeping correspondent] about how a neighborhood group fought last year to have the location stay open despite plummeting sales. Intriguing! I called the old number, and apparently it's been reassigned to another business, but I couldn't understand what the name was when the person answered the phone. Hmm. [Update: An inital call suggests it's been reassigned to another Starbucks, indicating a citywide macchiato-industrial-complex Bloomberg conspiracy. Developing.]
The Modesto Bee piece is dated summer 2005, but Jim Romenesko on Starbucks Gossip (starbucksgossip.typepad.com) had already been calling it America's favorite drug dealer for, I believe, at least a year. I have no idea where the phrase originated.
I am almost certain that the piece about keeping the Harlem Starbucks open was from the NYT City section, only I cannot seem to find it now.
Comments
The Starbucks in Harlem is such a tease! It looks like a Starbucks and tastes like a Starbucks, but its just not a full-flavored Starbucks. The biggest problem? No space. There are only a handful of tables in which to sit, and if you are lucky enough to get a seat there is no space in which to spread your newspaper/books/etc. It’s ironic, really, because of the changing face of the neighborhood; people moving uptown for more space…. Better let them know they’re not going to find it in Harlem’s Starbucks!