34 South Raymond Street is now vacant, and a group of 300 former owners, employees and patrons of The Espresso Bar that used to occupy that space have come together to work to reopen it there. Check out their proposal (best
printed or saved and opened in a PDF reader–the first 11 pages are all about The Espresso Bar’s history, and the proposal starts on page 12). Also check out their website at http://theespressobar.org.
The “E-Bar” was a real Old Town fixture, back when it was a low-rent artists’ district. From that time, only the pawn shop and porn shop remain.
I would dearly love to see the place come back (with wireless), and be open late, and fill back up with Art Center and Caltech students studying, and teenagers too young to drink reading poetry at an open microphone and practicing their hipster poses.
I’m there. I’m in. Sign me up and short-pull me a triple.
I’d love to see this place come back too. I was just lamenting the old pre-Old Town days, when there were still thrift stores, and the corporations hadn’t yet taken over.
The Espresso Bar at one time was the center of many political and artistic movements. Act Up, Peace movements for stopping Reagan’s dirty little wars in Central America, and any number of literary groups were present. There was a consciousness that was present in Old Town back then, that felt human and non-marketed to. Pasadena could use a dose of reality like this once again, especially in these contentious times.
Ohm yes.