The New Face of Big Bear Cafe

This place has really developed since it first opened last May and I'm glad that I've been around to observe its evolution.

It started out a very meager attempt at the small, neighborhood coffee shop; inundating its customers with environmental initiatives and small-scale, inner-city activism.

Now, it has molded itself into a full-fledged hipster elitist think tank of beat-like proportions.

However, most of the time there is no place to sit and certainly no place to think. When you enter, especially through the east door (the door that faces where I'm coming from and most often enter) you immediately confront the looks and judgment of a crowd so unknowingly condescending and exclusive, you would think you had mistakenly walked into a secret council, who's primary objective is to rid the world of all evil...and YOU are the very evil they are trying to rid it from.

You can order food or coffee or tea (they don't carry soft drinks or regular iced tea, so don't ask... this will induce instant derision from the employees and all those who overhear your order...a possibly irreparable rookie mistake). They have taken to strange, get-to-know-each-other type exercises such as putting out name tags by the register for customers to pick up and wear. They all have random, mildly amusing names written on them for you to choose from. For example, one of the female baristas wears one that says "Maurice," a ragged looking customer (clearly a regular) dons one that reads "Day Man," a male barista is "kitten," another female employee making the sandwiches is "farmer" and so on and so forth. I picked up one that says "mailman" and put it on my shirt. It would do you well to participate in these little games, as they are designed to tie the herd closer together and alienate those who enter who do not think like them.

And if you follow these instructions without faltering and proceed to sit down with your laptop, book or newspaper (do NOT come without one of the prior, it would be like going to the pool without a bathing suit or towel...once you're there you're completely useless and must, by consequence of your ill preparation, leave), you're in the club.

Don't be nervous about it because they can sense your nerves and will prey on them like an intuitive animal preys on fear. It is yet, another thing that can give you away as an intruder who doesn't belong.

The owners, a thirty-something couple (from what I gather) with no kids yet (I'm not sure about the kid part though) are quintessentially the royalty of the place; the most uppity and haughty of the bunch, only talking to those who suit their persnickety fancy. They have quite intentionally perpetuated a hierarchy in their cafe for them to preside over and in a way, I respect them for it.

All of that said, once you're in, this place is kind of sweet. They play decent music and provide an outlet for daytime exercise of brain muscle and socializing.

Pompous and brow-raising as they are and bedraggled as they look, these hipsters can surprise you at times with their quips and their often friendly medicine for the common brain cloud. ? would have felt at home here and would be proud of the progress it has made (he moved to India back in October, by the way).

So let's all raise our cappuccino mugs and emerald lily green teas to toast what has become of BBC (an accidental pun they have taken to playing up in the cafe, of late). The good, the bad and the bald men with ever-so-carefully groomed chin beards. Cheers.