BY BOBBIE WILLIS
The Corner Café
Bookworms meet barristas in the library lobby
coffee shop.
W
Traditional Greek & Indian Food
992 Willamette • Eugene, OR 97401 • 343-9661
RED BARN
N AT U R A L G R O C E RY E S T. 1 9 8 2
Whole foods, for whole people . . . Fresh from the farm to you!
organically grown produce • organic beer & wine
organic bulk foods • vitamins & supplements • organic herbs & spices
special orders / case discounts • natural body care products
LOCALLY OWNED & OPERATED
4 TH & BLAIR • 342-7503 • M-Sa. 8 AM -10 PM • Su. 10 AM -9 PM
30 MAY 13, 2004
e all know the adage that good
business is about location, loca-
tion, location, and Novella Café
has a supreme one: the lobby of the Eugene
Public Library on the corner of 10th Avenue
and Olive Street.
Novella serves a selection of coffee
drinks, teas, hot cocoa and Italian sodas, as
well as bagels and pastries provided by
Bagel Sphere . I order a blueberry pastry
($1.50) and the day’s coffee special, an
Almond Mocha ($2.50 for 12 oz.), both of
which are sweet and comforting and a nice
way to spend a morning coffee break. I’d
love to see a broader selection of baked
goods at Novella, but I did get there late
morning, when pickings might have been
slimmer than earlier in the day.
Maybe even more than the fare, it’s that
location — not to mention the atmosphere
and people-watching that go along with it
— that makes Novella a great place to hang
out. No matter the weather, the three-story
walls of windows allow in plenty of light
and a fantastic view of Eugene’s downtown
hustle and bustle. The seating area is about
a dozen stainless steel bistro tables with
bright pastel plastic, steel-framed chairs to
match; patrons can sit and relax whether
they purchase Novella food items or not.
This is as true a cross-section of
Eugeneans as I’ve ever seen in an eatery:
white-haired ladies eating brown bag
lunches of egg salad sandwiches and
lemon-lime soda; the young bus depot
crowd kickin’ it cool at a back corner table;
parents with children sipping at hot cocoa
and looking through the day’s library loot;
person after person engrossed in literary
selections borrowed from the library or
bought from the Secondhand Prose
Bookstore; the daytime downtowners look-
ing very official in neckties and wingtips.
This is a corner café that will really make
you feel like a part of the community.
7 am-8 pm M-Tu, 7 am-6 pm W-F, 8 am-6 pm Sa, 11 am-5
pm Su. Wheelchair accessible. V/MC, $.
Leftovers
• New Korean and American cuisine restau-
rant Cho Ga now open in Springfield, locat-
ed at 3540 Gateway St. inside Gateway Inn.
Call 726-1212, ext. 5 for more information.
• Mitchel Hescheles has taken on Café-131-
turned-Marco’s-Café on Main Street in
downtown Springfield, renaming it Marco’s
Café & Coffeehouse. If you’re looking for
what Hescheles calls “something different
over the river,” you’ll want to check this out:
Marco’s Café & Coffeehouse specializes in
fresh-baked pastries and lunch items that
Hescheles says are “everything usual with a
twist.” Marco’s Café & Coffeehouse focuses
on fresh fare, even making its own mayon-
naise and dressings. You’ll find the new
place at 602 Main St. in Springfield, or you
can call 726-4827 for more info.
• Looking for hot stuff online? Check out
online hot sauce retailer SweatnSpice.com ,
headquartered in Springfield and owned by
local Nick Lindauer. Lindauer, 23, started the
online store to fill a void he discovered as a hot
sauce collector. “I had a hot sauce collection of
about 100 different sauces, all of which I had
bought from different retailers. I wanted to
start an online business that I could enjoy… .”
SweatnSpice.com carries over 150 different
hot sauces that cannot be found at local gro-
cery stores and is enjoying a growing fan base
of hot sauce aficionados.
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