If you heard a loud wail in the City of Howell, it was me. I don’t want to get the Facebook scanner folks concerned: that sobbing was me because I just got the worst phone call of my year.
“I have some bad news for you,” said my son, who had gone out on a shopping run.
I feared he had gotten his second flat tire in as many weeks. Or lost his wallet. Something, anything, but what he blurted out.
“I hate to tell you this, but Uptown is closing,” he said.
I shrieked “WHAAAAAAAATTTTT?” as I dropped my phone.
“It’s closing,” he said. “It’s on Facebook.”
And there it was, the sad, sad (for me) story.
In a Facebook video, owner Lorna Brennan announced she is listing the beautiful, historic building for sale.
In her message, Brennan said that she was looking for a new owner, one who would “continue to serve as a steward for this wonderful structure,” and after the “appropriate amount of celebration and goodbyes,” the coffeehouse would close.
You can view the video here: https://www.facebook.com/reel/802858631811655
Uptown Coffeehouse has long been an important place for me. It was like my home away from home for over 20 years, and the place from where I wrote my first post-newspaper-layoff column, the one that was an editor’s pick on a national site and proved to me there was an audience still for my work.
After I got laid off from the local newspaper, I often worked there, usually at the table in the back between the bathrooms and the microwave. It is from that spot that I have done some of my best writing — I’ve often thought the feng shui of that spot perfect: among the coffee shop patrons, but tucked away enough to get some meaningful work done.
And even when I am not working there, I get a couple regular lattés — extra hot — to go each week.
It was after I got laid off, though, that Uptown became my anchor, my place of refuge with others in similar straits as the economy around us collapsed. I described Uptown as a “soft landing spot for me during one of the most challenging times in my life.”
“Way back in 2009, after I was laid off from my newspaper job, I found myself unmoored. Hours once filled with the editing and supervising and busy work of putting out a daily newspaper hung like stones around my neck. It was then that I took up almost permanent residence at Uptown.”
You can read that post here.
I love Uptown Coffeehouse. (I can’t write “loved,” not yet.)
Uptown Coffeehouse has given me a great, welcoming place to work, and a wonderful spot to catch up with people in the community; my husband often said I held court there. The coffee is amazing, the staff is wonderful, and the vibe in the place is perfect.
Oh, I am so, so sad that it’s coming to an end.
Downtown Howell — and I — will never be the same.
Note: This post was edited to include the video that was posted on May 10, but removed, and then reposted on May 11.
In another post, it was written that Brennan is “worn out and ready to move onto something new.”
“The (coffee) shop itself is not for sale, nor will it be moving to a new location,” wrote an employee. “If the building’s new owner wants to use the space as a new coffee shop, or rent it to another person with their own vision for a coffee place, it will not be Uptown Coffeehouse.”
