Sips Cafe
I think it used to be on George street... this cute cafe with burnt-red velvet couches in the back, cobblestone floor and a huge bright copper cappucino machine.
I can't remember the name of the owner - he was part-Indian I believe. One time he showed us a picture of him and his wife/girlfriend and two huge white tigers.
There were two other noteable staff at Sips - Lina and Derek. Everyone hated Lina, everyone loved Derek. Lina would try to turn over the customers quickly, getting them to pay and get out if they were just hanging around. She did make a mean sandwich though.
Derek was such a sweetie. He would flirt with everyone and get orders wrong, or really really slow, but he would let people hang for hours on just the one cup of coffee. Derek's one of my favourite memories from Ottawa in this time... I'm sure I'll post many more stories about him.
I was so sad when I was told that he had died of some freak accident - it didn't sound real and I still feel like it wasn't, really.
WAY back, gosh, I think in 1993 we started going downtown to cafes and shops to just hang out. Living in Orleans was rather dull, so as soon as we were able to get to downtown, we'd be on the 95 heading to the market. Sips was our place of choice to spend a Friday night. There would be great people watching and given that we'd be ariving at around 4 pm, we were almost guaranteed the couches.
In a way, we always felt like the outsiders looking in, but there were a few times where I felt that we were actually considered as part of the "Sips scene" - this one guy, Aaron with really long hair pulled back in a ponytail who would play guitar or write poetry and skate was another regular. Val and I saw him once outside of Sips, he nodded to us - we knew him and he knew us. It was wierd.
My favourite two things at Sips were the couches and the art - specifically one photograph they had up on the wall. A closeup of a Mickey mouse shovel in the grass. I think I had one of those when I was little - it looked fabulous too - fantastic colours and textures. Had I the money then I would have totally purchased it.
3 Comments:
It was Murray Street. The owner was either Greg or Craig. I had completely forogtten about Lina and Aaron! This is wonderful, it really is. I'm getting all sentimental.
Greg was the owner's son. Peccos bike shop is now at that location, expanded into both sides of the building.
I worked at Sips back in 96-97 for about a year. One of my first "real" job that i look back at fondly with great memories! I'm totally shocked to hear about Derek! That dude was great to me. He snuck me into bars after we closed sips and got me wasted god knows how many times. Leena was super cool with me too and yeah she was a bit of a "starbucks" manager but she always got my back if i needed an extra shift or a couch to crash at sips if i finished too late, or got too drunk with derek. I remember waking up on the back couch and she had made me breakfast. :) She did that a few times actually! Awesome awesome memories of that place. I'm sooo sad it's gone. And I'm sad to hear about derek. I still have the mix tape he made for me.
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