ximen | Some hopeful news for my neighborhood (Reply)

It doesn't balance out the sadness of losing Ichiban, but we do have a new coffee shop and a new market. The coffee shop is called @cafe, and is run by a really nice young woman from Guangdong, named Grace, who is really into coffee. She's also really good at making coffee, and can even make good soy milk drinks (soy milk is hard to foam properly). So if you're in the general neighborhood, check it out-- it's at Dearborn and Rainier. Apparently once she settles in a bit (this is only the second week), Grace is going to start offering proper loose-leaf tea, using her connections back in China to get good stuff. Sadly, this will probably happen about the same time I move.

The other bright spot is the new Jackson St. Market, which is going to be a weekend outdoor market. So far all they have is a lady selling bottlecap jewelry and two guys selling produce, but the produce looks fresh and good, and is really cheap: Rainier cherries for 3/99 a pound, and avocados that are 4/$1.00. Next week they'll have their EBT machine in place, so I'm looking forward to trying the cherries and avocados.

Also, it turns out that the little Hong Kong restaurant next to Thai Curry Simple has great HK desserts, and TCS continues to be excellent. So there are a few bright points for the neighborhood, as we all try to cope with the loss of Ichiban.