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The University News

The Student News Site of Saint Louis University

The University News

The Student News Site of Saint Louis University

The University News

A Farewell to Rhythm and Brews

I heard about it waiting for a cup of coffee, early this summer, after a long day of work. The line at Nadoz, the coffee shop on the first floor of the Coronado, was long, and so the girl ahead of me turned around to chat and pass the time.

“Did you hear that Rhythm & Brews, down the street, is moving out? I guess they just couldn’t keep enough business. I had a friend who worked there-and it’s really too bad-I can’t believe a coffee shop a few blocks away couldn’t make it with all of these students around.”

Rhythm & Brews was that small, all-glass corner shop, three blocks north on Grand, on the west side of the street. You couldn’t miss it, so many tiny white lights inside refracting through those enormous windows onto the pavement outside. Just past the cardboard portraits on the old Woolworth’s building, set immediately north of that famous Fox faAade.

There were a couple of sofas inside and, before the counter, some like-new wooden tables of different sizes. The walls were neatly lined with framed sketches from local artists.

Too bad, I thought, while my friend at Nadoz told me about this: I had never even been inside-I was just imagining how all of this looked. Before it closed, though, I decided that I needed to check it out.

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And so I took the journey to Rhythm & Brews-five minutes from campus by foot, I discovered. When I walked inside, a man, tan and vigorous-looking, with short, blonde hair and a maroon soccer-style shirt-actually, in general, he looked like a soccer player-jumped up from his table, where he was sitting with a laptop, and greeted me at the counter.

“What can I get ya?”

I don’t remember what I got, but it was fancy, and it took a while to make. As I was waiting for my coffee, I told him that I had heard that the shop was closing down soon. He asked where I’d heard that. Through the grapevine, I said. He said it was true. I told him that I worked for The University News. He said he’d placed ads with us before to attract students to his new place. And then he gave me my coffee.

Jeff opened Rhythm & Brews a year and a half ago (January 2004) in the Humbolt Building, in space owned by the Fox. He liked the spot because it is so close to the Pulitzer museum, Powell Symphony Hall, Jazz at the Bistro and the new Contemporary Art Museum; it is adjacent to the Continental Building and across the street from the University Plaza apartments and, most importantly, just a couple of blocks away from Saint Louis University.

He thought that Grand Center was developing, and that he was riding the crest of opportunity, that Grand Center would soon be like Washington Avenue. Washington Avenue boomed in about a year, from nearly-deserted street to what is now so full and bustling. He thought that, by opening a business on Grand Center now, he could help usher in other incoming business, both getting ahead of, and stimulating, progress.

Jeff told me all of this after pulling up a chair at my table, where I set down my newspaper and started taking notes. There were three other customers inside his store, seated alongside those massive glass windows. Our table was somewhere in the center of the room, far from any window, and likewise from any customer.

A woman opened the door, which issues a ding every time it is opened, and came in. Jeff jumped from his seat with the energy of a man whose livelihood is coffee. “Hey, how’s it going?”

“I’m just setting up office in here,” she said, helping herself to a smoothie from the cooler.

“Help yourself.” Jeff came back and we started talking again.

When his place closes down, Jeff said that there will be a void. He has gotten to know his regular customers and their families. There is a company upstairs of about a dozen people, whom he says he gets to see everyday. And he’ll be leaving his few employees, a couple of them from SLU. He’s developed a lot of respect for small-business owners.

One-and-a-half years seems to be the term life of coffee shops on Grand, he said. People’s Coffee, just a block away from Jeff’s shop, closed about the same time Rhythm & Brews opened. Jeff just hoped he’d have better luck.

The problem is perception, he said. People can’t see that this area is safe and healthy. They need to stop putting out the message that this area is bad. When Jeff went to the law school to hand out free samples of cookies and drinks, he said that a guy asked where the shop was located-hey, a professor had told him never to walk up there.

It’s tough to change people’s preconceptions. Even after a show at the Fox, people hustle by the place, despite that bright light coming from those enormous windows, with that mindset: It’s dangerous here, hurry up, gotta get out. The Woolworth’s building deters people, as does the empty lot at the corner. Here is Francis Xavier church, beautiful; and then this open, ugly lot and an abandoned building with boarded windows. People seem to be unable to see beyond that window to the north.

We talked for hours. I don’t remember why I had to leave, but I did. I shook Jeff’s hand, and we parted ways. I told him I’d like to write a story about our talk.

I came back a couple times during the next week on my way to work to grab a cup of coffee. “Hey, how are ya?” Jeff said every time.

Walking north on Grand one morning to get that cup of coffee, I noticed that there wasn’t any light coming from those immense windows. The place was locked up.

A paper was taped to the glass door reading “Sadly, Rhythm & Brews coffeehouse has permanently closed for business-To all of you who enjoyed my store, thanks so much for your business. To those who hadn’t made it in yet, where were you? Thanks, Jeff.”

I haven’t talked to Jeff since, though I will send him this story. And I haven’t seen what’s happened to his store after that day, as I have no reason to walk north on Grand.

 

Matthew Rysavy is a senior studying biomedical engineering.

 

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