In 2003, David Patrick was keeping an eye on his neighborhood corner store, just a few feet down the road from his home near the Christie subway station. "[It] was going to hell," Patrick says. "It was filthy and the owner showed up only long enough to sell single smokes to the local kids." He and his wife and nephew started dreaming about what a good location it would be for a café. "We started to talk about what we would do there -- really good coffee, panini and soup, wireless Internet," he says.

• Read full article
• Read full article in new window
• See other articles by Tina Gasperson
• See other articles published by Newsforge
• Today's headlines
• Headlines for Mar 09, 2006