Reggae is playing in the background, but cafe manager Cseariyn Tin Abdul-Hakim -- otherwise known as "Teen" -- is leaning on a coffee machine, barely even moving to the beat.
Wearing a tight-fitting wool hat, a leather jacket and a chain on his waist, he looks like a young hipster. But his 11-year-old son running around behind him betrays Teen's real age, as does his salt-and-pepper beard. To be accurate, his beard has more salt in it these days, but Teen still isn't saying how old he is, noting that "we go beyond age, gender, religion here."
"Here" being the Earth House Cafe, an informal coffee and tea hangout opened in September by a loose collective of friends who could see potential in the unused space of Lockerbie Central, a German-built structure from 1882 which houses a United Methodist Church upstairs.
"Potential to provide a service not just for our friends, but to build something Downtown," said Kate Lamont, 31, one of the informal directors of the collective. "We have felt for a long time that there's been a missing link here in organics and Fair Trade. It's not to be cool -- we felt compelled to be responsible."
Nevertheless, the feel is cool -- chill, anyway, with the stained glass windows, couches, chairs and poufs. And the fact that all the beverages made here are additive-free, with nothing refined, and no preservatives.
The cafe sells only organic, Fair Trade products, from the coffee beans to the tea leaves, to the creamer and sugar.
And the prices aren't bad for all-natural guilt-free goods:
-
$1.80 for a cup of coffee.
-
$2 for a yogi tea or yerba mate.
-
$4 for a mocha.
The space also houses a gallery, with art rotating monthly, a bookstore, and a wellness center for classes like African drumming, yoga, meditation and even bass guitar lessons. There's a stage, too, used for promoting local music acts at all costs.
"They may still suck," Teen matter-of-factly says of the performers, "but at least they have a chance. Basically, I believe in the moral concept of Fair Trade, organic, for better health, activism, by way of music, and localism, supporting artists from the community."
