Bleak House Coffee, Toledo Ohio,

Since I'm on a roll with food reviews, Toledo, Ohio comes to mind as a place where we were pleasantly surprised by a gastronomic anomaly of circumstance, Bleak House Coffee.  So, in spite of not being chronological,  it is more than worth mentioning here.  I'm not quite sure why the above photo seemed emblematic of my impressions of the city, but it was, or at least it was until my Bleak House experience.   Parenthetically, a totally arcane and irrelevant fact to anyone other than my some day future hypothetical biographers;  I once applied to and entertained thoughts of, attending the University of Toledo, back in a prehistoric era of life, for no particular reason other than the fact that they would have been accepting of the mediocre student that I was back then.  Surprising in view of the fact that I had once been heard to say...

                                                   Sometimes I stop,
                                                   and give thanks that
                                                   I was not born in Ohio...

Toledo was once called the Glass City because of the large number of glass manufacturers that had resided here, but today, the glass (taken on a sidewalk on Madison Street, walking to the glass museum, believe it or not)  is mostly shattered in this ghost city of vacant lots, vacant buildings, vacant dreams, and vast empty parking lots covering entire downtown city blocks that appear unneeded, since there seems to be little reason to be down there other than to see a Mud Hens game (I took a lot more like this, but you get the idea) ...

Where once stood buildings, commerce, and a bee hive of productivity, now there is only the dim memory of what once was, and a gaping sense of emptiness and despair in the inhabitants sleeping at bus stops slumped over at street corners, asking for quarters, going nowhere, doing nothing bereft of hope;  I could feel myself being drawn into this morass, at least I was, until I found myself at Bleak House Coffee, and all of a sudden, I felt at home in Toledo, the storm clouds parted, I felt I was somewhere, that there was hope, a reason to live.  Ironically, Bleak House (named for the novel of the same name) was in the Spitzer Building, which may mean nothing to most people, but to a New Yorker, it was the name of our disgraced former NY Governor, hoisted on his own petard.  It is an architectural treasure/office building that somehow,  fortunately missed the wrecking ball and houses a small indoor mall in the lobby area of which Bleak House is a part.  Located at the corner of Madison and Huron, this couple of blocks seem to be the most intact part of town.

This is the corner of Madison and Huron, looking down Madison.  The building to the right is the one you see through the window of Bleak House, the picture below is the perfectly minimalist interior accented by the totally cute co-owner/barista Stephanie who hand brews each cup of really good coffee right in front of you, if you are even watching .  In addition to Stephanie there is a quirky and interesting cast of characters who appear to inhabit the place in shifts and seem glad to be there, and for at least a little while, probably fantasizing that they are somewhere, or maybe someone else.  You would too.

In the end, my only real disappointment, was being there on a week when the Mud Hens were on a road trip.  Jackie and I spoke about hoping that "next time" we were in Toledo, we would make sure we  were there to catch a Mud Hens game.  What are the odds there will be a next time???  Maybe good.

                             

                                                                   Pablo's feet