The “Grande” Plan

Two weeks ago, I wrote about our pleasant surprise when we learned that the Times was a business with two buildings.

We bought the company because we wanted to run the newspaper, but we also wanted to open a coffee shop on Main Street.

At first, I thought the Times building at 139 Main would be the best place for an espresso bar, but the more I considered it, the more I realized we'd be much better off consolidating our news offices in a renovated front office and making the Mock building next door at 137 Main the coffee shop.

In the end, we compromised, using a portion of both buildings for each business.

That brings me to the subject of this week's column: The "Grande" Plan:

Nowadays, you don't need a ton of space to put together a newspaper. In the age of desktop publishing, you can do much of it on a PC by yourself.

Of course, in the case of the Times, we want to be a little bit more than a glorifi ed newsletter, so we have a team, so we need more than a home office.

The team needs a space to work together plus a place for readers and advertisers to come in to do business with us. That function, as many of you have noticed, is now in the front of the historic Times building, erected by newspaper founder C.W. Wheeler in 1888. It's really the best place for it. Since we've taken down the internal wall that once separated the newspaper's front office (next to the Crossroads Mercantile store) from the office of an attorney inside the Times building, the space makes a lot more sense as a newspaper bullpen with four employees.

The only other newspaper related function we perform is the labeling, stuffing and mailing of the Times, an operation we have moved to the very back of the Mock Building. Jim Walsh and Ellen Attebury come in every Wednesday at noon to make sure our subscribers get their newspaper in the mail.

That leaves the entire front portion of the Mock building and the back of the Times building for the coffee shop.

The espresso bar will go in the Mock building, which will also get a new facade. We could only find two historic photographs that show what the building looked like when it was new.

Each photo with a section of Main Street shortly after the turn of the century shows only half the building - one of the right side and one of the left. It's enough to recreate the old tall vestibule, which looked a bit like the bank building across the street sans triangle and somewhat less grandiose.

The Mock building shop, almost 50 feet deep, will be connected to the back of the Times building through an arched opening in the thick brick wall that separates the two buildings. The back of the Times building will function as the coffee shop's "living room" where some of the old equipment and old photographs will be on display, including the Linotype machine used in its day to set type for the letter press. The newspaper, which is now printed at the Union Bulletin in Walla Walla, used to be turned out in this space. We're hoping to find a glass dome so we can reopen the sky light. There's already light through large windows on the back wall of the Times. Behind that wall and next to the alley, there is now a bunch of construction debris and an old car port. But that outdoor area will eventually have a patio so coffee worshippers can enjoy the morning sun and get a glimpse of Preston Park.

Aside from the best coffee we hope to get from different parts of the world (the subject of a future column), the shop will serve pastries, bagels, ice cream, sodas, soups, salads and other light lunch items.

We're debating its hours, but I imagine we'll start with 7-3 Wednesdays through Sundays with occasional evening hours on the weekend when we can arrange for live music in the back-of-the- Times "living room."

The idea is to complement the hours and offerings of the Whoop Em Up Hollow Cafe, the jimgermanbar and the brewery. The goal is to be open late spring/early summer to take advantage of the travel season.

But most importantly, the coffee shop will be there as your home away from home: a place to hang out, linger over your espresso or get it to go, chat with friends or plan your community group's next project, let your eyes wonder over relics from a time gone by or enjoy a morning moment with the newspaper.

Which one? Well, the Times, of course. The one from Waitsburg for now. But perhaps we will add the ones from New York and London.

Woke up this morning, walked down the street Saw the green fuzz in the distance on the foothills of the Blues Got myself some coffee where my friends and I meet There is no perfect daybreak without a latte and the news

the FREEDOM of

ESPRESSO

A Coffee Shop In The Making