Half-hearted boycott over (mostly). Now just disinterested.

An electrical outlet. At Fido's, my former favorite coffee shop in Nashville's Hillsboro Village. And I'm here, typing. Not something I thought I would do anytime soon, but I'm here. And I'm not sure it matters anymore.

Why should it matter? Well, I'm not convinced it DOES matter on any real level, but I'm actually working from Fido's for the first time in a couple of years. Fido's was a huge part of the reason that, when I moved back to Nashville 5 years ago, I wanted to be near Hillsboro Village. This place was my refuge for many years in the late '90's after "The Owl's Nest" coffee shop closed up in Nashboro Village (anyone else remember that?). Still living with my family, I needed to get away and Fido's was the place. Always great music, good coffee and you can't beat the people watching. I moved away for a few years (never found anything close to it in the sea of chain eateries in Orlando), then came back and Fido's had changed. It was now POPULAR and was trying desperately to move from it's "hole-in-the-wall" coffee shop feel to a "cafe" of some sorts. They started handing out buzzers to let you know when your coffee was ready instead of shouting your order out. All the staff started wearing black with Fido patches sewn to the front. Progress? No, not really. Just trying to appease the hip, trendy crowd that had invaded. I'd still go there to work and drink, but the changes seemed a little TTH (that's "trying too hard"). The nail in the coffin of my frequenting Fidos is when they went and removed the electrical outlets from around the perimeter of the restaurant. This was a sign that they were trying to push the coffee-shop crowd out, in my opinion. No more laptop-toting people! Only women copying Paris Hilton with tiny dogs in purses and guys with their emo haircuts. (Sigh... do I sound like a grumpy old man? Sorry, it just looks like a casting-call for "The Hills" in here right now). So I started boycotting Fidos. Well, not really boycotting, but the love was gone and it was time to move on.

I've been frequenting Bongo Java, Fido's sister coffee shop that has a great front porch and a much more laid back attitude. Been going there for a couple of years now. Last week, Jen and I popped into Fido to get something while we were on a stroll and I saw that they had installed new outlets in a select few areas. I thought "heh... well, I'll give it a try again". And so I did. The people-watching has been interesting today (seen a few folks that I'll just describe as "stereotypes on parade", and of course some poodles-in-purses long after Paris has become passe). But the atmosphere is different. It really does seem like the kind of place you come in, eat, and leave and you don't care to linger awhile. No deciding to go back for seconds because you're so comfortable you don't want to pack up your belongings and leave. I could go on for another few paragraphs about how the changes at places like Fido's is a microcosm of the changes I've observed in Nashville since returning, but that's for another time. I gave the ol' pooch another try and they dropped the ball so, I'm gonna give up on Fido as a coffee-shop refuge (maybe it gave up on me?). I'll still frequent the place, but not often. I just hope that as Nashville grows and becomes a more sophisticated metropolis, we don't feel the need to change too many of the things that brought us here (or brought us back) in the first place. I can't boycott a whole city, after all.