At the Coffee Shop: Little did I know that my March 31 tribute
(Gilroy’s own version of ‘Cheers’) was a swansong for owner Mary
Taulbee of Garlic City Coffee and Tea.
At the Coffee Shop: Little did I know that my March 31 tribute (Gilroy’s own version of ‘Cheers’) was a swansong for owner Mary Taulbee of Garlic City Coffee and Tea. As of last Thursday, Mary said farewell to her longtime coffee customers with this message: “I’d like to take today to personally thank each and every one of my faithful and loyal customers for supporting Garlic City Coffee and Tea the past five years and five months. Having my own coffee shop was my dream and you made it come true.”
The popular coffee shop downtown at Fifth and Monterey streets will now be called Sue’s Coffee Roasting Company. New owner Sue Shalit did a lot of searching before settling on downtown Gilroy, but as soon as she saw the coffee shop, she knew it was where she belonged.
“I want everyone to know how excited I am about this opportunity,” she says as she sketches her ideas for the future. “There’s a real feeling of community here.
“I’ll be continuing the Friday night music series, and I want a definite emphasis on the arts. I’d like to showcase local artists and display their works here.”
Shalit plans to eventually change the look of the place by adding different kinds of furniture and décor, but says she will make changes in a gradual way as she gets to know the neighborhood.
“I see downtown becoming a real center for the arts with the cultural center coming here in the future. I think it will be a great place to be.”
Shalit is also looking into all the possible ways the coffee shop can be a benefit to the community it serves, such as hiring developmentally disabled adults and inviting school children to visit on field trips to see the giant antique coffee grinder at work. It’s the only one of its kind around.
At the Library: Did you know the Gilroy Library has the only Haiku poetry group of its kind in the world? Librarian Lani Yoshimura tells me that June Hopper Hymas, an award-winning poet who many of you might remember as the former Gilroy Community Librarian (1970-1983), has even been invited to travel to Japan to give presentations on an ancient form of Haiku.
Next Wednesday, April 27, at 4pm, you can enjoy a program presented by Hymas and Patricia Machmiller, writer and artist. Both of them are active members of the Yuki Teikei Haiku Society.
One of the best resources we currently have at our library is access to the Microsoft Office XP Professional suite of software. You can go into the library and learn how to use this software, which is on all of the public computers, totally revitalize your work life, and then document your new computer skills by writing a resume using a tool found in Microsoft Word as well.
Librarian Dennise Julia tells me why she developed free computer classes at Gilroy Library: “I remembered how difficult it was for me to get a job when I first moved back to the Santa Clara Valley in 1996. If Measures A and B pass, I hope to teach classes in Web design and blogging as well, since those two areas have become a new standard of professional life for many of our residents.”
