One of the things about commuting at F's walking speed is the opportunity to take things in. For example the place next to her work that is on it's third iteration of restaurant in 9 months. Last summer it was a cafe & taverna serving souvlaki. It closed for the summer holidays (as do many such businesses in Piraeus) and never reopened. Just before Christmas it was remodelled into a fish taverna, opened without fanfare, and closed again in January. During this lockdown it is being remodelled yet again, and judging by the noise coming out of as we left work today, it is going to be a night club this time.
We are not taking bets on its longevity.
Lockdown seems to have prompted a lot of re-imagining, possibly by bored or unemployed people, for quite a few of the empty retail premises we pass on the way to work. They have been empty all the time we have lived here (around 18 months) and you couldn't imagine that this would be the best time anyone could have picked to bet on a retail revival. However, skips are filling up with old plasterboard and signs, broken tiles, smashed up concrete, and splintered doorframes. Paint is being applied. High tech signs have appeared, along with stainless steel fittings, modernity, glitz, some glamour, expensive looking fit-outs and people fussing in and out of doorways to take views on their designs.
Is all this really going to take on the rise in internet shopping, and overcome the additional fears that COVID (it sounds like a variety of crow doesn't it - a black thing hovering on the edge of vision - tap, tap, tapping...) ... back to the story .... that COVID has now blessed on our society?
The tarpaulins have come off the piled up tables and chairs on the square outside our favourite cafe. Well it might not be F's favourite, but we stop there on our way back from Cosmozoo because it is a good place to park Donkey, and they use real milk so I can get MY favourite frothy coffee after having done my shopping.
Maybe we can have the occasional coffee on the way home from work.
Any business that isn't already well established with faithful clients is going to have a difficult time. We will certainly be helping our favourite cafeteria by having as many cappuccinos as possible.
ReplyDeleteI'm so pleased it has cooled down and I can enjoy a few hot cappuccinos before I am forced to start ordering a frappe.
Your cappuccino looks quite drinkable!!
Love the covid-crow reference .
We've always been 'buy local' kind of people except that in the UK small local has been decimated by the rise in big supermarkets - edge of town, big carparks, sell everything from food and clothing to hardware and electronics, in-house bakery and in-house cafe - guess how many of the competing businesses survived on the high street? And that was before the meteoric rise in internet shopping wiped out the rest. The only things left in the village were hairdressers and charity shops . Boarded up frontages all over. Greece (Piraeus, we can't speak for the rest) has been a huge restoration of belief in the value of personal relationships in neighbourhood commerce. Tigger can't wait for our favourite taverna to reopen - he loves our leftover souvlakia (chicken or pork - not fussy). I love it for a huge range of vegetable dishes with a 'Hellespont' influence (shall we say) - I suspect the family were refugees 100 or so years ago. They have some great old photos on the walls.
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