Loop: Where Culture Circulates

In the early 90’s, between studying at DePaul and selling greeting cards at Arcadia, I spent a significant amount of the little leisure time I had hanging out at local coffee shops in Evanston, home to Northwestern University and frequently referred to as Little Europe. Meeting with friends and going on dates at Caffeine, The Unicorn and even Café Mozart felt like a beautiful and soul-filling retreat during an otherwise hectic schedule.

When walking into these intellectually inspiring venues and then sitting down on the wobbly wooden chairs or the worn out couches, I’d often feel compelled to write The Great American Novel. Surely the influential authors who held salon in Paris in the 1920s – Fitzgerald, Hemingway, Joyce, Miller, Nin and Stein – must have congregated at places just like these. The menus were hand-written in white chalk on a dark chalkboard, mismatched furniture that had seen its heyday crowded the tightly packed and low-lit spaces and sometimes friendly, but often smug, employees that were clearly way too overqualified to work there served espressos and delicate home made butter-rich pastries to students, poets and professors.

From the hissing sounds of the German-made coffee makers, to the clinking noise of ceramic cups touching their saucers to the buzz of pre-iPod discussions, for generations, cafes have served as thought-provoking incubators for ideas. Coffee shops have always and will continue to provide the perfect fuel for intimate discussion, great debate and, most importantly, the written word. Just ask J.K. Rowling, who, as a single mother on welfare, wrote the first “Harry Potter” adventure at Nicolson’s Café in Edinburgh, Scotland.

In the mid to late 90’s, a certain coffee chain out of Seattle exploded on the scene and, suddenly, the allure of the independent coffeehouse began to fade. Time-starved, full-time-everything adults needed an on-the-go, energy-induced beverage, they wanted it now and they wanted it prepared the exact same way, each and every morning. Never mind the $3 per cup charge, which nets out to over $1000 a year. These were the roaring 90’s and everyone had stock options, leased BMWs and flew overseas like it was going out of style. OK, not everyone, but a new fiscal disposability threw rational thought out the window. I won’t go into an economics lesson here, but seeds to the Great Recession began to firmly plant themselves during this time and, while people exchanged stock tips and flipped properties, chances are, they were holding very large beverages with a commercial label on the cup.

Flash forward to the present: America is rebuilding, our citizens watch their spending and a certain coffee chain slowed down its expansion and even closed a few locations. Cleveland natives, rich in tradition of hard-working and industrious individuals wanting to make a difference and to provide for their families, are showing their independent spirit and opening new restaurants for people to sit down, enjoy a meal with family or friends and be able to afford the experience, thus paying with cash, protecting their savings accounts from credit card predators. Everyone wins.

A few moths ago, downtown friends Daniel and Hannah introduced me to one of these places. Opening its doors mid-November 2009, a new beverage and dessert establishment made its home in the progressive Tremont area. Located at the same intersection as South Side and Parallax, Loop, camouflaged in a two-story post-war house, positions itself as “Coffee. Music. Art.” And, it delivers on all three promises.

Coffee

The coffee bar at Loop is rich in variety, offering the following options: latte, cappuccino, espresso and just regular black coffee. Additionally, iced versions are available. There’s also a generous selection of teas, not to mention refrigerated bottles of juice and water. To compliment the beverages, Loop also offers pastries including the typical cookies and muffins you’ll find at other places, but it also surprises with the less typical – slices off poppy seed cake, an homage to Cleveland’s Eastern European heritage. Finally, the prices at Loop are extremely reasonable, so you can enjoy your special treat, guilt-free.

Art

As soon as you walk into Loop, you notice the two-story pre-pegged wall on your right, filled with beautiful paintings, by local artists. Additionally, throughout the cafe, there’s an extension of artwork, with photography, heightening the distinct atmosphere. On the first floor there’s a shelf/bar area where a thick binder hosts the names of the artists and the pricing for their work. Enriching collaboration between a new local venue and its creative community adds further credibility to this very distinct establishment.

Saving the best for last, here. The greatest differentiation Loop offers is housing and selling music. Not just any music, but rare albums that have very little to do with top 40, especially the mostly over-produced, resampled and bearing little resemble to talent dreck played by today’s commercial radio. Even cooler is that Loop sells records. The second floor, reminiscent of the record shop in “High Fidelity,” not only has a couple additional chairs and tables, but racks and racks of vinyl, providing music lovers a nostalgic excavation hunt juxtaposed with offerings often including recent releases by current artists on a medium that some will argue still delivers the best stereo sound, period. And, not only will Loop order an album for you if you don’t find it, but it also sells concert tickets. Finally, a DJ shows up on weekends, spinning tracks on the upstairs turntable.

Stop by Loop if you want to get lost in a cultural surrender. With free Wi-Fi and an outdoor deck, not to mention the wonderful neighborhood, you’re definitely in for an original experience. And, perhaps, you may want to bring your laptop and a lifetime of observations, characters and stories to, finally, begin and, ultimately, finish writing your Great American Masterpiece. How novel.

Loop Info: 2180 W 11th St. Cleveland, OH 44113 (216) 298-5096. Additional information is available on its Facebook Fanpage.

Reprinted with permission and gratitude from CoolCleveland.com