HCR, Anthony and Habitude

I'm a creature of habit.  Always have been.  I draw comfort from the familiar.  Same restaurants.  Same bartenders.  And, yes, same coffee shops.

Amidst all of the uncertainty and fluidity of life, it anchors me, I think, to go to the same to a few places and have the same experience, day after day.

In mystery mind, I bookmark certain periods of my life with where I was most comfortable during that time.  Bongo Java.  12South Tap Room.  Edley's.  Frothy Monkey.  Portland Brew.  Burger Up.  Honest Coffee Roasters.  Some of those are past haunts.  Some are current.

At each one, I've connected with someone there, or sometimes more than one person.  Over time, we occupy that unique space between acquaintances and friends.  Not crossing boundaries but occasionally developing a real friendship that transcends the every day transaction of business that accompanies buying a cup of coffee or having a drink.

At Bongo Java, it was Chad and Megan in the early days.  Later, George, Adam, Chuck, Nick, Ayla, Hunter, and EJ.  Especially EJ.  I had a long run at Bongo Java. 

12South Tap Room.  Sweeney.

Edley's.  Spencer, Cara, Ashleigh, and Julie.  There, I had an intense run of a few years.  A picture I took at shift change one evening is framed and on ether and on the wall at the far end of the bar.  Cara, Ashleigh, and Julie.  It's a bit of a relic, now, as all but Julie have moved on from Edley's.

Frothy Monkey.  Grant and Josh, both of whom I still keep up with on Instagram.  During the pandemic, though, I stopped going there, for some reason.  Portland Brew became my neighborhood go to for morning coffee.

Burger Up.  Alejandro and Troy.  I matriculated there after I stopped going to Edley's as much, for one reason or another.  It's my current hang.

Which brings me to Honest Coffee Roasters and Anthony, whose last day working there as a barista is today.  After 4 + years in Nashville - working at HCR and trying to build a music career a session drummer - Anthony, his wife, and their two young children are moving home to Cleveland, Ohio.  

I think - I know, actually - that Anthony has mixed feelings about moving home.  He feels like he didn't make it, whatever that means, as a drummer in Nashville.  Covid-19 had something to do with that, of course, as the music industry ground to a halt for almost 18 months.  With two young children, too, there's a real benefit to living near family in a city (Cleveland) where housing is more affordable than it is here.  I get that.

Yesterday morning, I got up early, and picked up a gift card for Anthony at Home Depot.  As he made me a final latte, we chatted briefly and shook hands.  I gave him a note I'd written to him late Friday night, after Jude and the boys were in bed.  My advice - fatherly, maybe - was not to give up on his dream.  Keep chasing it.  

I also wanted him to know that when my mom had Alzheimer's disease and was at Maristone then, later, NHC place, Honest Coffee Roasters was a port in a storm for me.  Often times, I wrote about her in this space as I sat in the same seat in the coffee shop, drinking a cup of coffee that Anthony had made for me.  I wanted him to know that by having a smile and a kind word for me, or just chatting about music briefly, he had made a positive impact on my life at a time when I needed it.  

I felt, and feel, at home at Honest Coffee Roasters, in large part because of Anthony and others like him.  Burger Up is the same way for me.  A place where I can duck in for a drink or two and a quick conversation with Troy at the bar.  I'm not sure why but those type of regular interactions with people on the periphery of my life center me.  It's something I need.  

Anthony, and Troy, are winners.  I watch the tone they set for other employees in the way they go about their work and in the way they connect with patrons.  Connecting.  I think that's they key.  Connecting with other employees and with customers.  

I'll miss Anthony, for sure.  I'll miss Troy, too, when he leaves for India, probably later this fall.  

Maybe I'll still be a regular at Honest Coffee Roasters and Burger Up, or maybe I'll find another place.  

As Tom Petty sang, "It's time to move on.  It's time to get going.  What lies ahead I have know way of knowing."

A photo I took of the guys at Honest Coffee Roasters, clowning, one morning a couple of weeks ago.  "A prom picture," Anthony (on the left) said.