Today is day 4 of the 100 day project / project wazo. I didn’t write anything yesterday, but I did post a little something on Instagram so follow me there if you don’t already. I’m considering starting a separate newsletter just for this project but I haven’t done so yet. And I’ll keep this update brief (not surprisingly, doing something every day is more challenging on work days!).
I went on another little field trip to another coffee shop during a lunch errand earlier today, this time to Snow White Coffee Bar on Piedmont Avenue. Not only does Snow White Coffee win points for being a something-else-turned-coffee-shop and keeping the original name, to boot, it’s in a super cute building that offers up, it seems to me, who knows nothing about this sort of thing, one way to go about owning a business: retail downstairs, residential upstairs.
I’m not sure if Snow White’s owner owns the entire building, in this case, but I personally daydream about owning some sort of mixed use building like this to keep overhead costs a little lower (how do businesses afford rent in the Bay Area?!?), allowing me more creative freedom to use the retail/business space as I like (although I do want to make money, which would probably come mostly from selling coffee).
I love how they’ve kept the original sign inside.
Anyway, after all that talk of loving coffee, which I do, I opted for a chai latte with oat milk instead. While I waited for my beverage I chatted with the barista about other unique spaces like Snow White in Oakland and beyond. Stay tuned here and on Instagram for more field trips and related project wazo shenanigans (and a regular biweekly update coming tomorrow!).
P.S. I’m surprised there’s nothing on Oakland Wiki about this building and its history…