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shannon_aOn Monday, my friends at Endgame announced that they're closing the Endgame Café on Sunday, so today at my weekly boardgame night at Endgame, I followed their instructions: I visited the café one last time and I tipped like mad. Oh, and I got one last Tilden sandwich. That wasn't in their instructions, but it should have been.
Personally, I go to Endgame for the games. I supported the café because it was important to the Endgame staff: a challenge that would keep them going through the next five years. Not because I particularly cared about the café on my own. But I do have to say, they made great quality sandwiches. Great bread, great turkey, great avocado. And I never got around to their breakfast sandwiches which looked terrific too.
Shockingly, le café was almost empty tonight. I usually find it somewhat crowded, with people at several of the tables. I expected this week it would be even more jammed than usual, as people made their last visits. But tonight there was Eric V., Eric L., Jefferson, Amy, and me, and that was pretty much it. Easy to see how that didn't work out when they had two staff working.
(But the café as a whole had various problems, including a very long rollout that I suspect ate up the capitalization that would have been necessary to loss-lead things like evening hours, until they developed a clientele. And the interaction between the game store and the café never worked out like it could have. But, that's pretty much all water under the bridge at this point.)
I suspect there are some hearts breaking at Endgame this week. Hard choices. My condolences to my friends there.
And hopefully the game store will go on.
(If you're in the Bay Area, you've got through Sunday to say farewell to the café. Go visit one last, tip like mad, and eat a Tilden.)
Personally, I go to Endgame for the games. I supported the café because it was important to the Endgame staff: a challenge that would keep them going through the next five years. Not because I particularly cared about the café on my own. But I do have to say, they made great quality sandwiches. Great bread, great turkey, great avocado. And I never got around to their breakfast sandwiches which looked terrific too.
Shockingly, le café was almost empty tonight. I usually find it somewhat crowded, with people at several of the tables. I expected this week it would be even more jammed than usual, as people made their last visits. But tonight there was Eric V., Eric L., Jefferson, Amy, and me, and that was pretty much it. Easy to see how that didn't work out when they had two staff working.
(But the café as a whole had various problems, including a very long rollout that I suspect ate up the capitalization that would have been necessary to loss-lead things like evening hours, until they developed a clientele. And the interaction between the game store and the café never worked out like it could have. But, that's pretty much all water under the bridge at this point.)
I suspect there are some hearts breaking at Endgame this week. Hard choices. My condolences to my friends there.
And hopefully the game store will go on.
(If you're in the Bay Area, you've got through Sunday to say farewell to the café. Go visit one last, tip like mad, and eat a Tilden.)