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Four Friends coffeehouse


Jocar

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Open until 11 pm tonight, or until that huge "thank you" sheet cake (it's pretty good!) and the T-shirts are gone. Big crowd. The music is shut off.

ETA: Someone must be reading over my shoulder; the music is going now. (One of the best things about this place is the great selection of eclectic music spun by the barristas.)

A notice taped to the counter has a penciled postscript: "we will not be re-opening in another location. Watch the GR Press or MLive for more details." (Heck, why not skip the middleman, just come here to UP?)

J-Lunch is not open, but their neon is on.

ETA again: must be 50 people in here, lively crowd. Hi JeanG!

ETA redux: T-shirts are now $5. Cookies, free. Wonderful Wealthy Street Bakery brownies, ditto.

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Open until 11 pm tonight, or until that huge "thank you" sheet cake (it's pretty good!) and the T-shirts are gone. Big crowd. The music is shut off.

ETA: Someone must be reading over my shoulder; the music is going now. (One of the best things about this place is the great selection of eclectic music spun by the barristas.)

A notice taped to the counter has a penciled postscript: "we will not be re-opening in another location. Watch the GR Press or MLive for more details." (Heck, why not skip the middleman, just come here to UP?)

J-Lunch is not open, but their neon is on.

ETA again: must be 50 people in here, lively crowd. Hi JeanG!

ETA redux: T-shirts are now $5. Cookies, free. Wonderful Wealthy Street Bakery brownies, ditto.

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  • 3 weeks later...

No progress on the now-empty space. Awning hasn't changed. The place is cleared out (the Friends said that they'd be selling the coolers and other equipment on craigslist).

No "coming soon" signage, no discreet papering of the windows. Just a big black empty hole next door to garish red neon.

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I actually have a friend that works for Johnnys, Johnnys actually is now leasing the former Four Friends building and is turning it into a I believe "Johnny's Coffee" I didn't get a timeline on the renovation but I know that it is supose to be open by sometime in September. Hope everyone likes red neon...

Also mentioned to me was the possibility of The Dog Pit not renewing there lease at years end, that however is just a possibility, outside of that conversation i've heard nothing about this.

I was also told the whole detailed story about the dispute between Four Friends and there landlord but I don't remember enough details about it to relay it, my apoligies...

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Hey guys,

We've moved to Denver so I'm not here much but just happened to check in today to see what's going on in GR. I'm very dissappointed FF is closing. 14 years ago I had just gotten my license and some friends introduced me to FF as my first coffee shop experience. We hung out there way before coffee shops were cool.

Hate seeing local coffee shops close.

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  • 1 month later...

RANT:

The Friends shut down July 12. It's been two months, and the space remains empty.

I don't care about negotiations or exclusivity agreements (no more hot dogs or burgers on the block). I do care that a lively successful business has left Monroe Center, leaving a big dark space across from the ice rink. (Went to the media event last Tuesday, and it looked very odd: Johnny's fancy neon next to a black hole.)

The monthly rate is posted in the window for all to see (about $3k). I have no idea if that's high or low or exorbitant or absurd. I do care that the retail jack o' lantern has had another of its teeth knocked out, and now there's one less good reason for us to "let's go. out."

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RANT:

The Friends shut down July 12. It's been two months, and the space remains empty.

I don't care about negotiations or exclusivity agreements (no more hot dogs or burgers on the block). I do care that a lively successful business has left Monroe Center, leaving a big dark space across from the ice rink. (Went to the media event last Tuesday, and it looked very odd: Johnny's fancy neon next to a black hole.)

The monthly rate is posted in the window for all to see (about $3k). I have no idea if that's high or low or exorbitant or absurd. I do care that the retail jack o' lantern has had another of its teeth knocked out, and now there's one less good reason for us to "let's go. out."

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RANT:

The Friends shut down July 12. It's been two months, and the space remains empty.

I don't care about negotiations or exclusivity agreements (no more hot dogs or burgers on the block). I do care that a lively successful business has left Monroe Center, leaving a big dark space across from the ice rink. (Went to the media event last Tuesday, and it looked very odd: Johnny's fancy neon next to a black hole.)

The monthly rate is posted in the window for all to see (about $3k). I have no idea if that's high or low or exorbitant or absurd. I do care that the retail jack o' lantern has had another of its teeth knocked out, and now there's one less good reason for us to "let's go. out."

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I agree that $3k doesn't seem particularly out of line, though I don't know how large the space is. I do question the Johnny's Lunch owner's reasoning in tying up that space to prevent competition from opening there. It seems unlikely that another burger joint would have opened there since there aren't any others already downtown. If there were such a huge demand for burgers surely there would be more fast food restaurants downtown. Now they're just paying for an empty space. Whatever margin they get on the sublease will probably not even come close to what they're paying while the space sits vacant.

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I agree that $3k doesn't seem particularly out of line, though I don't know how large the space is. I do question the Johnny's Lunch owner's reasoning ... Now they're just paying for an empty space. Whatever margin they get on the sublease will probably not even come close to what they're paying while the space sits vacant.
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Last time I looked, the contact info posted in the window was for the real estate agent, not Johnny people. This suggests that Johnny's obtained a right of refusal, or exclusivity, or non-compete clause *** but did not actually lease the space from the owner. (If they had, they'd have implemented their Johnny's Coffee already.)

*** just because I work in real estate leasing doesn't mean I know all the terms. I'm a city planner, not a realtor

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Last time I looked, the contact info posted in the window was for the real estate agent, not Johnny people. This suggests that Johnny's obtained a right of refusal, or exclusivity, or non-compete clause *** but did not actually lease the space from the owner. (If they had, they'd have implemented their Johnny's Coffee already.)
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  • 4 weeks later...

Monthly rant. Do I need to spell it out?

Aw heck. The UM-ULI visitors are in town. The skating season is fast approaching. Three months have gone by, and we still have a vacant black hole where a thriving, popular business used to be.

There oughta be a law against this.

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