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DEL.ICIO.USCoffeehouse is a perfect place to get grounded
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Patrons dash in and out. Most stay to read and chat or to fire up their laptops.
Soothing music plays. You can’t escape the aroma of coffee.
I’m in the Northern Star Coffee House, a cozy cafe on South Peachtree Street in downtown Norcross. I don’t know what it is about coffeehouses, but I always feel doubly smart whenever I visit one.
Maybe it’s because you’re seemingly surrounded by the best of society, thinkers and doers who gather soberly to converse, commune and network, to talk about making life, theirs and in many cases the community’s, better.
In a way, the people who occupy the tables, couches and chairs are hosting town hall meetings, allowing ideas to percolate.
And because I am jaded with celebrity news, the war, our government, the people in charge of it and many of those jockeying to be president, the Badie Tour spent a few hours Wednesday in search of inspiration, fresh ideas, real people, a respite.
What better place to look than the Northern Star, a 3-year-old shop whose owner, William C. Leubben, sought from the onset to turn it into a town square of sorts.
I’d just walked inside the cafe when Keith Shewbert, the rookie Norcross city councilman, beckoned me to a table he shared with three others. He invited me to attend a town hall meeting set for next Thursday to talk about local schools —- their quality, perception, reality, parental input and economic impact.
“Education is the linchpin to everything,” Shewbert told me. “If we have good schools, we capture a broad, diverse middle class.”
On the patio, a dozen or so kids and their moms wrap up story time, held 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. every Wednesday. Maureen McNamara and her children —- Sean, 3, and Cate, 1 —- don’t miss it.
“They love the stories and the crafts,” the Norcross mom told me. “You get regular moms attending.”
Soon, McNamara will jockey four babies. Twins arrive this November.
“Having three was a surprise,” she said. “But four was a shock. It will be fun, though.”
In the cafe, two teens sit hunched over a laptop. It’s Mary Crippen and Nami Patel, a recent AJC Gwinnett News intern.
Patel, 18, wants to get into politics some day, and is considering a major in international relations. Crippen, 17, is leaning toward linguistics. Both 2007 Norcross High grads, they’ll attend NYU this fall but not room together.
“We’d kill each other,” Patel said, laughing. “It’s better for our sanity.”
Before I leave, I strike up a conversation with Norm Cranford, a Duluth resident who, a few years back, ran unsuccessfully for a local school board seat.
The retired engineer for Primerica is studying to become a certified financial planner. I suppose his is an altogether different purpose than most who enter the profession.
“I want to teach the kids how to handle their money,” he said.
Who knows?
Maybe he can hold free classes at the Northern Star.
Rick Badie’s column appears on Sundays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays. Contact him at 770-263-3875 or e-mail rbadie@ajc.com.
Permalink | Comments (7) | Post your comment | Categories: Rick Badie
Comments
By JR
June 14, 2007 9:38 AM | Link to this
Rick,
It sounds more like you got stoned instead of grounded.
By Katie
June 15, 2007 5:44 AM | Link to this
So, the best of societies hang out in coffee houses? That’s news to me. Seems to me the coffee addicts hang out there but whatever. And, Shewbert is wrong. Gwinnett has good schools but all we seem to be able to attract is illegal Hispanics and their illegal children. Yes, they get a great, free education (and lunches) at the cost of Gwinnett tax payers. Was that discussed by our high society coffee addicts?
By Deborah Lee
June 15, 2007 8:59 AM | Link to this
In the New York Times a financial planner gave some good advice for new college graduates and it was to forget their daily $3.00 lattes, learn how to make coffee and put the money they save in a bank account.
By Bruce Wilcox
June 15, 2007 10:05 AM | Link to this
Haven’t made it there yet but certainly plan on it. You can always find good conservation, interesting people and unlike bars you can remember what was said in the morning. These small community gathering places become the heart and soul of a small city like Norcross.
Where I grew up the kitchen was the gathering place and a fresh pot of coffee was always brewing it seemed. The memories it brings back of relatives, friends and neighbors sharing the good and bad times together, the coffee house doesn’t sound much diffent, I may make that visit today.
By Cindy House Maloney
June 15, 2007 1:22 PM | Link to this
Are there any coffee houses in Georgia that have a beer/wine license? ‘Thank you Cindy House malone7
By Cindy House Maloney
June 15, 2007 1:23 PM | Link to this
Are there any coffee houses in Georgia that have a beer/wine license? ‘Thank you Cindy House Maloney
By Cindy House Maloney
June 15, 2007 1:23 PM | Link to this
Are there any coffee houses in Georgia that have a beer/wine license? ‘Thank you Cindy House Maloney