Beach Cafe

I need to report the sad demise of a Beach Café.  It is still open, it is still operating, but it is clearly in decline.  We have suspected this for some time, Pam & I, and last night had it confirmed.

We drove past the café last night at about 8:00pm.  We can remember what it was like at 8:00pm, at the height of the summer holidays.  Packed.  Buzzing!  Last night, two days after Christmas, is pretty much peak time for that café, as the ‘Christmas week’ is peak tourist season down here.  And there are more houses down here than when we first started coming with much of the vacant land between the older houses now built on, so maybe there are 10-15% more houses now.

Can you remember what it was like at the height of the summer holidays?  You had to book, no question about that, and you couldn’t always get the time of your choice, as they staggered the bookings so they could handle the demand.  Every night every table was occupied, waitresses dashing between them all night, laughing with the diners throughout it all.  That’s my memory.

Last night, at 8:00pm, there was one table occupied.  Only one!

I reckon it would have felt pretty soulless, to be sitting there, as the only table occupied, at a café that in previous times you could hear the hum as you walked towards it.  During the night you would be able to engage in banter with people at the tables around you.  Every evening we had there was less a private engagement, more a large local social gathering, where you chose the people you sat with.

Maybe I don’t like change as much as I tell people I do.  Intellectually I know change is inevitable, and if I want our world to improve, I know change is necessary, but, when I see things change, I’m not always that happy.

What has led to the decline – I bet the proprietor would love to know.  It’s a funny thing with cafés and restaurants, that there is often a certain ‘feel’ about them, and when that feeling has gone, so too does the business.  This why Pam & I suspected the Café was in decline – the feeling wasn’t there like it used to be.  The pizzas are as good, but the Beach Café was always about more than just the food.

It can be hard to put your finger on what made the vibe, what created the ‘feel’, so it’s hard to say what should be done to bring it back.  I wish someone would work it out, because the demise of the Beach Café is not the change I seek in the world.