The Sun Goes Down on Café del Sol
“It was a good run,” Café del Sol co-owner Frank Walker was recently quoted as saying. His wife Sally (aka The Countess of Coffee) posted her goodbye on their website. For seven years the café has been a Floyd hub and a beautiful downtown second home to many. For six years the writer’s group I belong to have been co-hosting monthly Spoken Word Open Mic’s there. I don’t drink coffee or know the difference between a cappuccino or a latte (their specialties) but I will miss my cups of tea, lunches, cafe Scrabble games, and my standard cold mug of New Castle beer before poetry readings.
I recently took some time to reminisce about the café by browsing my blog posts and was glad to see that I have a record of so many fun times there, mostly Spoken Word nights: like the time is was done in costume, with a puppet, on the sidewalk, as a memorial to a friend who died, and as a celebration for a new local literary publication. How about the night all the poets got free T-shirts, the time we wore green and spoke in Irish accents, stood on chairs, did it in ruby red slippers?
Apart from Spoken Word nights, I have other good memories of time spent at the café: like the time my friend Mara made everyone write on her pants or the time she balanced a Scrabble box on our friend Bruce’s head. Once we played Scrabble with two boards, six players at two tables. Another time my blog friend Naomi called from from Los Angeles because she knew from my blog post that I was there playing Scrabble. And I’ll never forget when the deer crashed into the café window. After I posted about it, I got a couple of blog comments saying that Floyd was like Northern Exposure, southern style.
I know there are new and exciting things to come in the space (these friends have taken over the lease), but in the meantime, I take my purple poet’s beret off to Frank and Sally Walker and say “thank you.”
Post Notes: Thanks to the folks at the Black Water Loft coffee house for agreeing to host the next Spoken Word Night on March 20, at 7:00. We’ve had the event there before and it worked out great. The stories I wrote for All About Her on Sally and the Black Water Loft and noteBooks are HERE and HERE. Click on the sidebar “Spoken Word” and “Scrabble” for more. Stay tuned …
March 15th, 2010 1:18 am
Glad there’s a temporary spot arranged. bit chilly for sidewalk poetry.
March 15th, 2010 2:12 am
Oh wow, that is such a great place. I wish the new owners the best of luck! PS- your blog looks great. I so rarely get off FB to see the blogs anymore I stay behind!
March 15th, 2010 2:53 am
How truly sad, Colleen…I think I have read every one of those Cafe Del Sol posts over the years….And I feel like I have been there, between your Posts and that phone call….! I know things change and other things come to an end, but, when it happens, it is really a sad thing. A lot of Floyd History was made here! Bless those folks!
March 15th, 2010 8:50 am
i only know this café through your images and words, but this post made me feel sad. i hope you guys will be happy in your new “eat, drink, play, and read” space. may good luck follow the old owners.
March 15th, 2010 9:17 am
You are correct in that you were no longer on my blog list for new posting. I have changed that this morning and it looks like it is working once again.
March 15th, 2010 1:09 pm
I have to say that I feel kind of sad to see Cafe del sol go. I have read about it so often on your blog that I kind of loved the place (or at least the idea of it!)
March 15th, 2010 3:03 pm
It’s like losing a friend when a favorite spot closes up shop. But it is so great that you have recorded so much of the life that took place there. Even I will miss the Cafe del Sol, and I’ve never even been there in person!
March 15th, 2010 5:09 pm
I do have to say Colleen, your knack on getting the right photo for the story impresses me. . .you have a real talent for that. . .getting the sunset in the cafe window!
March 15th, 2010 5:18 pm
Thanks, Stuart. The trick was finding it. I knew I had taken the shot a year or so ago and that it would be perfect for this post if I could find and where I had stored it. And I did!
The cafe windows always fascinated me. I have some great shots of it from inside with reflections in it and different plays on the light, like this one: http://looseleafnotes.com/wp/2007/04/the-poets-weigh-in/
March 16th, 2010 6:33 pm
it’s always a little sad when things change. even if they go on in another form.
Book Review – Moving In
March 16th, 2010 11:34 pm
Colleen-
Thanks for the lovely tribute! I treasure those moments and memories, and thank you so much for being the “historian”…..a skill which I certainly fall short of.
I also want to thank EVERYONE who participated in the Spoken Word. It developed into a truly wonderful event. I hope it continues in the fine form it evolved into.
We will miss being there….but ya never know what is next! Stay tuned-Sally
March 17th, 2010 11:40 am
I still cannot believe it, really.
It has been heartbreaking to drive by this week and see the place being dismantled.
Sally: I need my scrabble mug! And what happened to the games?
I think many of us are still grieving.
March 17th, 2010 11:06 pm
The “dismantling” of the Cafe was harried, took at least as much energy as setting it up! No comment on the emotional content. Long story short, well, look in the door.
The good new is I kept the Scrabble mugs, & have the games. Better yet, I now have some time to play scrabble! Take note Mara!
Tell y’all what–I miss my coffee–and you–too!
March 19th, 2010 4:30 pm
[…] comfortable spot at the Black Water Loft coffee house to work on a homeschooling lesson. Due to the closing of Café del Sol, the Spoken Word will be held at the Loft this Saturday, starting at 7:00. A post from a past Spoken […]
March 24th, 2010 12:53 pm
So sorry to hear about Cafe del Sol. I wasn’t there too many times but did enjoy the Spoken Word events the few times I got to attend.
Great cafe and great group of people up in Floyd!
March 24th, 2010 8:56 pm
Neva, We were at the Black Water Loft this month and hope to be back there in April on the third Saturday of the month. It’s upstairs of noteBooks in the tall cedar sided building downtown. You can see it from where cafe del sol was.
July 12th, 2010 9:50 am
[…] restaurant part of the Roadhouse (that used to be Café del Sol) has been extended into the Sun Hall and a movable wall connecting the hall and the restaurant has […]
July 14th, 2010 9:47 am
[…] restaurant part of the Roadhouse (that used to be Café del Sol) has been extended into the Sun Hall and a movable wall connecting the hall and the restaurant has […]
March 7th, 2011 1:52 pm
[…] It was hosted by The Floyd Writer’s Circle and Sally Walker, owner of the Café del Sol. The Café del Sol closed a year ago this month and the writer’s circle has been inactive almost as long. We moved the […]