The Princess Theatre, Twenty Years Ago…

What a lifetime ago…such a beautiful time.  We opened our coffeehouse in the old Princess Theatre building in my hometown of Lewisburg, W.V.  It was a treasure trove, Mattie’s Roastery and General Store.  A place for community, a place of quality goodness, and a place of epic joy.  My brother, Todd, made that brushed aluminum sign and all the stenciling that called in the passersby.  Many years later, our apostrophe went missing and I became plural for a short while…until we found it well hidden by a toddler in a potted plant, so my time of multibeing was short-lived.

The list on the side window read:

• tea
• tavern puzzles
• W.V. (Coal) or (honey)
• bottle coke
• antiques
• moonlight to (perhaps) midnight
• espresso
• W.V. maple syrup
• newspapers
• juice
• pure maple candy
• book(???)
• mountain(?? there could have been whole mountains in there)
• spices
• redband candy
• music
• homemade italian sodas
• bulk o(..?)
• ground peanut butter
• and…the photo is cut off and the list went both east and south and my memory lapses.

The front door read, “Life’s too short for troubled water.”  a temptress of fate?  and a tale for another day.

Almost Twenty, Mattie’s.