The End of the Millennium

[MarketStEl]

So I walk out the door of my apartment building this morning and see signs across the street informing me, "It's the End of a Millennium!"

Millennium Coffee, the coffee shop that bought an entire block of 12th Street back to life, is closing its doors Sunday.

The closing seems quite abrupt. The person at the counter when I went in to ask why, and why so suddenly, had no information.

I don't think it was competition, really. Millennium had an established customer base in a niche none of the other nearby coffee shops went after--although the Village Coffee House, the former Mean Bean, has made a concerted effort to woo that same market and may now get Millennium refugees.

I wonder if it has anything to do with a change in lease terms designed to get them out? There was a widespread uproar in the gayborhood when developer Tony Goldman purchased the building it's in a few years back and announced that he wanted to replace Millennium with another tenant. The outcry led him to back off his threat to evict them.

I hope he is smart enough to try to find a similar tenant for that space. Millennium is a popular hangout spot and adds life to that stretch of 12th Street.

[sockii]

Oh my.

Why do I have the sinking feeling a Starbucks will be on the way shorty?

[mike volker]

Who is shorty?

Best,

Mike

[KatieLoeb]

Well this is a sad turn of events. Millenium was a very hip coffeehouse and remained fiercely independent both from corporate invaders and in spirit for a long time. It will be missed. Another one bites the dust.

I hope that Mr. Goldman has success with the space. His "vision" of turning 13th Street into competition for Rittenouse Row didn't exactly pan out as planned or in the time frame originally predicted. It does look better than it used to though.

[Scoats]

Just the other night, I was talking to a couple who are interested in reopening a coffee shop there. On Sunday, I'll be giving them a hand looking at the financial feasibilty of doing that.

[MarketStEl]

Just the other night, I was talking to a couple who are interested in reopening a coffee shop there. On Sunday, I'll be giving them a hand looking at the financial feasibilty of doing that.

←

Go for it. (Edited to add: And while you're at it, maybe you can persuade them to drop by Millennium between 6 and 9 for their farewell party. At 9 on Sunday, they close for good.)

I ran into an acquaintance of mine--a Millennium regular who I often run into in drag at the 12th Air Command, which is precisely how and where I ran into him tonight--who informed me that he was told by someone there that the sudden closing is due to a steep hike in the rent.

("That's why Asians, when they want to open a business, they own the building," my Thai acquaintance remarked after this.)

I hope that the new rent isn't so steep that your associates couldn't make such a place work now. That coffeehouse is--make that was--a real community anchor.

Speaking of "community", let your associates know (if they don't already) that Millennium had a sizable and loyal customer base in the gay community and that they would reap a lot of good will by continuing to appeal to them.

Edited October 30, 2005 by MarketStEl (log)

[serpentine]

I hope that Mr. Goldman has success with the space. His "vision" of turning 13th Street into competition for Rittenouse Row didn't exactly pan out as planned or in the time frame originally predicted. It does look better than it used to though.

Oh, the B(locks) B(elow) B(road) neighborhood? [snicker]

[MarketStEl]

I hope that Mr. Goldman has success with the space. His "vision" of turning 13th Street into competition for Rittenouse Row didn't exactly pan out as planned or in the time frame originally predicted. It does look better than it used to though.

Oh, the B(locks) B(elow) B(road) neighborhood? [snicker]

←

Like that moniker caught on. I hate to sound nit-picky, but part of the problem was that the alliteration violated an unwritten rule of geographical references: Even though "above" and "below" are sometimes used in reference to numbered streets regardless which direction they run, the terms are more often associated with the cardinal compass points north and south, with "above" meaning "north of" and "below" meaning "south of". Broad Street runs north-south, thus running afoul of the rule.

Now for a post-mortem on Millennium's last day in business, which concluded with a farewell party from 6 to 9 p.m.

I found out from one of the staff that contrary to my impressions, business had been falling off at Millennium of late. He told me that the place was really busy during only one of the three shifts.

I also found out that the owner of the place had been devoting less of his time to running it over the past year or two and was psychologically ready to move on. Despite the suddenness of the announcement, the decision to close had been, um, brewing for some time.

The closing was in keeping with the spirit and style of the place. As I said to an acquaintance in attendance, "When this place opened, I called it 'Woody's without the alcohol.' (He agreed that the moniker was an apt one.) Tonight, it's 'Woody's with the alcohol.'" (Wine and cheese were served.)

As with many events that attract the local gay community, most of the people there knew a lot of the other people there. The straight bar/coffee/nightlife scene may have gotten a lot more polyglot and sophisticated over the past few years, but the gay scene remains a neighborhood affair, even if the denizens of that cultural neighborhood are scattered across several physical neighborhoods and some suburbs.

Scoats: I hope you were able to make the numbers work for your friends. I can assure you that if they can somehow recapture or improve on the spirit of Millennium, or offer something different that's just as appealing, there are a lot of people in the vicinity who would love to patronize the place.

[Scoats]

Scoats:  I hope you were able to make the numbers work for your friends. I can assure you that if they can somehow recapture or improve on the spirit of Millennium, or offer something different that's just as appealing, there are a lot of people in the vicinity who would love to patronize the place.

←

My friends, more my girlfriend's friends but mine too, are in "the community" though opposite gender of the current owners. If they decide to plunge in, it will definitely have extremely strong ties to the gay community.

The rent while high, isn't a stumbling block. Though it would be an easier slog if it was lower. I told them to go for it. I don't know what they have decided.

And it's not just Asians who know the value of owning the bricks.