Wannabee Cafe Outside Looking In

The other night, we happened to be walking by the Wannabee Cafe and it was bursting at the joists with music and people. They had moved all of the handcrafted tables -- works of art by themselves -- out onto the sidewalk. Inside was a band playing relatively loudly for a cafe.

The Wannabee is a relatively new University District cafe located at the corner of Brooklyn (Way) and NE 52nd Street. We have been watching this building closely for a long time now. When we first moved here in the autumn of Aught-two, it was just going out of business as a used bookstore. It had a hand-painted sign on its side that read "OOK". For a short time later, it seemed to have transformed into some sort of medical supply outlet that never looked to be open. That venture quickly went out of business and the building eventually became party to some secret renovation that seemed to last for well over a year and a half. Finally, after much anticipation, it opened as the Wannabee Cafe. Fortunately it kept the hand-painted OOK sign from its days as an ookstore.

Whenever we walk by these days, it seems to enjoy modest business -- enough, it seems, to be keeping it afloat. This is nice for a neighborhood place, for it can be lively without being obnoxious. We don't have to trudge down to the loud and insipid Ave just to bask in the cafe atmosphere. We have run into former schoolmates and colleagues there as they sat outside reading.

Admitedly, we ourselves have not been inside yet. We have long-standing loyalties to Ave-based Trabant, Sureshot, and Solstice. This will not stop us from making generalizations, however. We have observed a decidely more studious and well-read crowd: grad students, perhaps, or local "organic" lefties. And although it possesses wireless-fidelity, we see relatively few laptops. Perhaps this owes to the building's former ghosts as a bookstore. The other night during the show, though, we saw a younger, grittier crowd. It looked a little like the ostensibly-dissaffected, neo-punks as well as the very odd "hippy goth" hybrid crowd which calls the Wayward Cafe its home.

Ah, but no matter our gross generalizations! It's good to see that there's room for everybody here. And judging by the crowd's size, it seems like the Wannabee is in good shape. It certainly keeps with Seattle Business Rule #1: there is no market saturation when it comes to cafes. The Wannabee has remained in business for almost a year now and we wish it to stay open so that we can insert it into our rotation of cafes we live in frequent.