“Tales of a Scorched Coffee Pot” — D1

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Both in size and appearance, Liberty Avenue more closely resembles your average, single proprietor owned, charming little convenience store more than it does an all-natural market. And moving in the complete opposite direction as its Southside cousin across town, this location finds itself situated in a once thriving district which has now fallen seriously out of favor. In a non-GMO nutshell, what happened out here is that heavy traffic forced the city into some dicey infrastructure decisions, which then subsequently killed most traffic — namely, a cement blockaded bus lane right down the middle which essentially made this city boulevard into an interstate, a pair of divided one way streets with no turnoffs for half-mile stretches at a time. Therefore the inbound city traveler, in order to reach Liberty, has to sail a fair distance past it, to the next major intersection — the only crossing point between there and downtown — and then hook a U-turn or else a series of more conventional ones, just to retreat to this funky little enclave.

Fortunately, driving from the Southside store out to here is not nearly as convoluted. This store just happens to be on the correct side of the road. And so during the occasion of his first ever visit, Edgar arrives with maybe a half hour to spare from his standard 4pm quitting hour. Barely enough time to introduce himself to the head cashier, acting as manager on duty — a pleasant seeming, slightly heavy-set redheaded girl named Chloe who, yes, it must be said, dresses the part with the flowing, floor dragging skirt — and whomever else happens to be around. He hands off the tags for Duane’s new product line to her, some kind of packaged meat brand which figures to do well here, not so much the other two stores (and not to be confused with the merely pre-cut steaks recently introduced at those locations). Edgar finds himself a bit nervous and sweaty, strolling in for a cold introduction like this, into the sea of entirely unfamiliar faces, and Chloe’s kind of looking at him funny, but he otherwise does okay.

Having completed this task, he strolls around and appraises this bizarre yet adorable outpost. There’s a truly awesome neon sign which looks like it must have been in place circa the store opening in 1979, now relocated to a jutting high wall just above the cash registers. The dusty, white tiled…