Legare's Cafe (Community Center)
This week-end I went down to help Jonathan "open" the cafe. I thought for sure that we would still be pulling pipes out of the floor or something. This place has been opening "in a couple of weeks" for months now. This coincided with J needing some time to finish some projects, finish writing a book review, and filling out job applications without having to suffer through my latest insanities. I was not really thrown out of the house this week-end but she did have a lot of work to do. I was shocked to show up in Portland to not just a fully realized cafe, but the cafe we have been talking about for 18 years: clean well lighted place for writing, amazing and truly international coffee menu, great inexpensive food ($3.50 brie and greens baguette). It even opens with good art on the walls. I show up and I just help move one small truckload of crap and then I get to spend thirty hours with Jonathan drinking amazing coffees, going on tea tastings in the Foo Bonn Center, and staying up hella late for a tasting that featured a 40 year-old Modena balsamic vineagar. Really an amazing day. All of you middle-aged prodigies from Petaluma, you former refugees from Christine's, Markey's, and Aram's, would have wept to see your native son do you proud. It is like a slice of North Beach right here in the North West. The place itself is a work of art -- the pictures do not do the experience justice, but here they are:

http://geocities.com/geoffcain/images/legare/legare.html