Food
Coffee Therapy #7: Salon b. Bibliocafe
Salon b. was pretty dead Monday afternoon, except for the grief support group. Luckily, there was a corpse downstairs to keep me company.
Salon b. is the startling cafe located over St-Laurent's Alfred Dallaire/Memorial, the funeral home. It contains a Library of Death, as well as a Symbolic Chessboard lit from above by delicate fixtures which, the exuberant barista explained, represent life... as it were... suspended by a fragile thread.
From within the second-story cafe, you can go out on a catwalk overlooking the Memorial services. Sometimes there are dead people. There was an open casket funeral on Monday. I peeked, luridly.
I asked the barista if cremations were conducted on site. "Oh no!" she said, "Certainly not!" She looked at me inquiringly. I cleared my throat. "Just wondering," I said. But, between you and me, the coffee at Salon b. has an eerily toasty roast.
It's not the best coffee, at all. My layered latté went watery as soon as I pushed my spoon through it, although the foam was thick and pale and kissably soft. The temperature was a little too low, a wee bit post-mortem. It's expensive coffee, too. You pay for mystique at Salon b.
I played a game of chess against myself on the Symbolic Chessboard. I don't mean to be negative, but I'm pretty sure, given the context, I lost.
To be brief, I am charmed by the half-artsy, half-compassionate, and 100% capitalist notion behind Salon b. I've got no moral compunctions against cozying up to death--just ones against overpriced mediocre coffee. But coffee drinking is a fundamentally ordinary experience, and there's a lot to be said for any venture that makes an ordinary experience both extraordinary and mindful. Salon b. succeeds in that, nicely. Consider it an alternative to La Ronde.
Salon B Bibliocafe is located at 4231 St-Laurent.
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At my father's funeral just over a year ago, I can assure you my grieving family members were hoping some cynical, hipster douchebag was snidely critiquing the quality of the coffee, served along with some half-witted death jokes for good measure.
I was delighted to read you had the pleasure of peering onto an open-casket funeral. It brought back wonderful memories of staring at my father’s eyelids which had been sewn shut by a mortician.
All the best in your quest for the perfect latte.
but i think your comment is totally unfair, insulting even. cynical, hipster douchebag ?! that's, like, the worst accusation ever, in this town. you even know her ?
i myself found this post quite funny and i also have lost someone very close to me a few months ago.
i do believe having a coffee shop in such a place is ridiculous and i think the author makes it clear she is also of that opinion.
it's a damn coffee shop review. and a damn blog. lighten up.
We've all been through grief, or will go through it at some point. I've lost people I loved too. A coffeeshop built overlooking a funeral home, by the funeral home owners, was clearly created by people who are taking that fact--the fact of death--in stride, and who are trying to offer that ease to others. I liked them for it, but some people aren't comfortable with the concept. Sounds like you would find it offensive. I suggest not going.
Perhaps, calling someone a cynical, hipster-douchebag is harsh. Perhaps then, one should choose their words carefully given the situation. Then again, perhaps I should lighten up. It's only a blog.
There's a time and place for everything. The quasi'ironically distant' tone, given the subject matter, was really not cool.
I'd say "The quasi 'ironically distant' tone, given the subject matter," was really pretty darn appropriate.
To object to the cafe itself as offensive is one thing, and that really seems to be your point. And it sure does sound pretty damn crass to sell overpriced coffee and provide an overlook of memorial services for your sipping pleasure. See?--I couldn't help myself from sounding snide and ironic just now and I haven't even been to the place.
So I'd have to defend the post here as taking on the bizarro terms of the cafe and responding accordingly--it's a review of the cafe and the coffee, not the ethics of the situation, though it does put those into question too.
But the post is certainly NOT saying "For my own smug-cynical-hipster kicks, I can't wait to invade funerals and violate the grief of others."
It would seem that it had nothing to do with the coffee review, more the little comments like the roast being toasty after mentioning cremations. It seems okay when the funeral that was taking place was faceless. However, if it were the funeral of a Dawson shooting victim, I think people would react differently.
After reading Christy's comment, she does seem to find the existance of the cafe like that weird. But some out there find its existance a bit offencive.
Christy, I don't think you should take this as an attack on your overall coffee reviews. It just happened that this one can hit close to the bone for many people out there. It's possible that a discussion on this facility isn't best suited for a coffee review, as it will make it come across as flippant. Andrea may have been the only person to bring that up, but she's not alone in some of her feelings.
I have offered here exactly what I believe a news blog of this caliber ought to offer: a light, informative review. Better I should explain what this place is, in a mild tone, and have people say, "Gosh, I think that place would really upset me," then have them wander in and suddenly discover they're in a cafe overlooking a mortuary. That would be a lot more upsetting, wouldn't it?
And, speaking of upsetting, what does a Dawson shooting victim have to do with anything other than making the emotions around this non-issue even more overblown?
155,000 people die every day. As a result, the world is full of much funnier commentaries on death and funeral homes than my silly review. Note the wildly popular show Six Feet Under. If a review as mellow as mine should be apologized for or even deleted for offending a few people, where do we stop? Do we ignore metal concerts and rap shows because some people think THOSE are offensive? Alright, we already do, but do we also avoid discussing artists who use the "F" word or talk about for-ni-ca-tion because my parents would get upset? Do WE stop using the "F" word? Is MP really ready to commit to being completely irrelevant?
On a lighter note, last week me and Christy went to a resto where we were served by blind people, and drank our wine topless. Not to be arrogant. Not to be rebellious. Just for fun, because it's absurd.
More on that later!
Honestly, it's obvious that both sides feel strongly about this. But that's what blogs like this are for. No one is saying the post should be removed, but the subject is obviously going to bring out emotions from people.
Also, the "(it's a word, look it up)" is just something you do in english language to be humorous. It's got nothing to do with Hipster clishe.
That said, being emotional about stuff is OK. Fun even. But insults and name-calling ? now, that's just cheap entertainment. But keep it up. This here reader is loving every second of it.
Keep on keeping on, I love your posts.
And damn if that café place ain't freakin' weird. *Shiver*
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