Another shop on the blocks
The venerable Tea Spot has a sign up on the cash register announcing their demise. Sad. The location is a bit awkward. You’d think the ice rink plaza would get more foot traffic but it’s just enough out of the way to be relatively unvisited. The Tea Spot sign says that the owners are doing well in their wholesaling business so that’s where they’ll focus their efforts from here forward, the end of the lease being a good time for them to pull away from the retail shop. New owners could jump in on favorable lease terms (seems like business leases are going ridiculously cheap in Boulder right now) and an already-completed buildout.
So where does that leave the Boulder coffee shop scene?
- Amante for sale
- Playgrounds for sale (and closed until somebody buys it)
- Organica folded about 6-9 months ago
- Sidney’s just sold
- Tea Spot closing
Who is doing well? The obvious ones (meaning they’re always full):
- Amante NoBo
- Folsom St. Coffee
- Laughing Goat
- Logan’s (full all day though?)
- The Cup
- Saxy’s (but see recent post decrying the “success“)
- Starbucks (hahaha) … actually, only the Hill location seems to be consistently busy
- Vic’s (Ideal)
shop transactions
From the fact file and the rumor mill:
Sidney’s just changed hands, from Trish to wife-husband team Heidi and Matt.
Amante is up for sale. The rumor price we heard initially was $1.3M, but I’ve since heard something more like $700K. (Good luck with that. There aren’t that many wannabe euros here.)
Playgrounds (we never got around to posting a review) closed doors in late 2008, the owners trying to find somebody to buy it. The rumor price we’ve heard is absurdly low, so low I’m not even going to print it. The owners of the shop also owned the NoBo space and spent oodles on the build-out (obvious if you’ve been), and are offering to either sell the space or lease.
Best of Boulder? Um, yea….no
Once again the popularity contests come out and distort reality. And we love reality. We don’t love gimmicked phone-tree (email tree?) influenced “popularity” polls. So we shouldn’t be surprised that the Best of Boulder 2008 has — who else? — Vic’s as the best coffee shop in Boulder. Ug.
Vic’s, people? Can you possibly be serious? The only thing this proves is that Vic’s is the best at getting their friends, neighbors and relatives to vote. What does it take, an email address? Yeah, I’ve got five, and my uncle in Michigan has ten. Yeah, we just won best coffee shop blog.
The real deal with Vic’s is that they serve some of the worst coffee in Boulder (it is Allegro, also served by numerous other shops) and the flagship shop is dark, crowded and otherwise laid out in almost unworkable way. The socialite crowd needed a nearby see-and-be-seen hang and Vic’s was all the neighborhood has to offer, so it became so by default. It decidedly did not become so because it is a good coffee shop. So Vic’s won “best coffee shop.” It ain’t the coffee, it ain’t because it’s the best shop, it’s because somehow the 30-somethings single ants collect there looking for honey.
NoBo Amante: just bigger
It’s the same shtick as the downtown Amante. If you’re into the soccer & road biking eurotrash thing (and many here in Boulder are, so don’t feel ashamed just because I think it’s lame) and like to pretend you’re getting a taste of Italy in every visit, then this is the place for you. It’s all here. Plus this version of Amante serves hard liquor for the thirsty lost souls of the northern hinterlands.
The real diff between this Amante and the downtown version is that this one is open and large. Not remotely cramped, lots of windows, lots of corners and tables and outlets. You don’t need to bring along your human-sized shoehorn and earplugs as you do for a downtown visit. Bonus if you like Amante coffee. I don’t particularly, but hey, it’s a lot better than what Vic’s, Joe’s, Ozo and a few others serve.
