Bean There, Done That: Another Local Coffee Shop Closes

About three and a half years ago, not long after we bought our house on the Indiana side of the Ohio River, my wife and I were driving around on a Saturday morning. As usual, I was under-caffeinated, and when we saw a sign for a coffee shop calling itself "Dbl Shotz" in a strip mall behind the hospital, we decided to stop in and check it out.

As it happened, they weren't quite open yet - but the owner, Darin, was already behind the counter and getting the espresso machine warmed up. When he saw us out there, he unlocked the door, let us in, and a new friendship was born. Darin and I are both coffee enthusiasts ("snobs" is the word my wife uses...) and he invited me back behind the counter to see how his new, high-powered, Italian espresso machine worked. Over the years, Darin, his wife Marjorie, my wife Jennifer and I became close friends, and we were regulars at the shop; we'd stop in every Saturday morning for (in my case) a few shots of espresso and a pound of beans, and in Jennifer's a hot chocolate or a peach-mango smoothie, depending on the time of year. I even, at one time, had a blend of beans named after me at the shop- although I let that drop when Darin came up with one that was even better.

We got to know a few more of the regulars, who ranged from hospital patients to retired businessmen to real estate agents to the landlady, and we brought friends to the shop. I took coffee from Dbl Shotz to my coffee-loving colleagues when my far-flung company had its annual get-togethers.

Darin and I share an affinity for doing things ourselves - he helped me build the pergola that shades my back patio, and I helped him move the six-foot-tall, three-hundred-pound shelving units he bought for the shop at an auction when a local health-food chain was bought out.

And throughout these three and a half years, they always managed to provide a better cup of coffee, at a better price, than anywhere else in the area. Perhaps that was the problem - they were too good at what they did, and too unwilling to pass on the cost of doing it to the people they did it for.

Or perhaps it was the location - the end slot in a strip mall with not much traffic other than the hospital and the lucky few of us who found it out from their sign on the intersecting road. Regardless, today, Friday May 2nd, was Dbl Shotz' last day in business. As energy prices spiral and food and delivery costs go up with them, it becomes harder and harder for a small company to keep doors open- and eventually it becomes impossible.

Darin hopes to move the 10-pound-capacity Sivetz roaster from the shop into a new location and continue providing loyal customers with their "fix" directly. I'm hedging my bets though - I bought two five-pound bags of beans this week.

I have no worries about losing touch with our friends - if anything, with the shop closing, I hope to have more time to see them. But a part of our lives is going away - a ritual of our weekends and mornings- and another piece of independent business spirit is being worn down.

Dbl Shotz may have a successor, but nothing will replace it.