MSN_TUCSON's Blog

The origins of MSN Coffee Night are hidden in the murky waters of a Cafe Mocha. Originally Tuesday night at 7pm, members would gather for this no host event at Rainbow Planet Coffee House on 4th Avenue. People would chat and joke for a couple of hours or more as members arrived and left according to their plans for the evening. Sometimes we would need all of one of the 3 rooms or more, and sometimes it was just 2 or 3 of us..................(cont below):

When the RPCH asked us to move our MSN Coffee Night to Thursday, we agreed so that there could be a live music series on Tuesdays. When FPCH moved the live music to Thursdays, we tried meeting during the music, but couldn't really converse. At that point the MSN coffee attendees began to look around Tucson for a new venue, and we tried Epic Cafe and Colours, but they just weren't the same as the Planet. When it turned out that the Thursday music was not well attended, we came back to have our Thursday night caffeine clatch at good old RPCH! That did not quite work out for the long term when we discovered that RPCH had suddenly boarded up the South wall and shrunk down to one room, the smallest room. And the other 2 rooms? Now a cute Polynesian shop on 4th Avenue, but they don't serve coffee. Now just sitting at RPCH felt sort of like someone was holding up a peice of plywood really close to the side of your head, and wouldn't move it away from your head even if you asked real nice. Small place. So we left it for the outdoorsy customers to enjoy and allowed MSN Coffee Night to collapse like soy milk foam on a latte. A short time later an informal posse of dispossessed MSNRPCHCN regulars began searching, searching, searching...but RPCH is hard to replace and now not very user friendly anyway. Quite soon Merlin and Lee began prodding all the other MSN Coffee Knighters to again find a new Valhalla. And just when we were giving up, Celeste in my office told me that she likes stopping at Crave now when she drives in on Broadway. So I tried it! I liked it! After a large house I loved it! It took some doing to get Merlin and Lee to drop by for a test drive at Crave, but they finally did after I went on and on about how the Purple Fabric Banquette in the corner would work great if we dragged over a table or two and chairs to complete the circle. Everything was so perfect except that they now wanted to have Coffee Night during the Day! I KNOW!!! Saturday at 1pm. MSN Coffee Night during the day at Crave! Of course I took the high road and am very supportive even though it doesn't begin to fit into my schedule. After all, Crave is so fabulous on the South side of East Broadway just West of Swan. You know. The strip mall where Beaver's Band Box and the Dandy Dime are. In the storefront where the 31 flavors used to be. Yeah, there! So Crave Espresso Bar is the new place now for MSN Coffee Night (during the day). http://www.craveespressobar.com/