Misinformation in coffee story

Dear Editor:
I have been a resident of North Park since 1973 and have always enjoyed reading the North Park News, which has consistently provided local information that no other news organs have. As a journalist, you are, I am sure, committed to pursuing the truth in your reportage, but in Ruby Cougler’s article in the September 2009 issue regarding the coffee business in North Park, there was unfortunately some misinformation conveyed.
Contrary to current belief, and despite what the owner of Calabria Coffee may have said, Claire Mager was not the pioneer in bringing coffeehouses to North Park. In 1994, the Millennium Bookstore & Coffeehouse opened on the very same site, offering coffee, pastries, desserts, books and a wide array of live entertainment seven nights a week. The storefront in the Odd Fellows Building had formerly been Bab’s Bridal Shop and had been vacant for some years before I inquired as to its availability and discovered a space with enormous potential. I and my wife, Sherry, in partnership with bookseller Robert Elliot, turned that vacant space into an attractive venue, building a stage, opening up the beautiful windows onto University Avenue, uncovering a vintage hardwood floor to which a rubber-backed carpet had been glued, and getting the permits for and effecting the installation of kitchen facilities. Unfortunately, the city of San Diego would not grant a permit for sidewalk seating, which seriously curtailed our plans.
The Millennium Bookstore & Coffeehouse eventually closed its doors in December 1996, unable to come up with the capital to continue its operation, despite having publicly solicited for new partners. Among those who had responded to that solicitation was Mrs. Mager’s ex-husband. When our lease came up for renewal at the end of 1996, the Odd Fellows declined to renew it and reconveyed it to the Magers. Claire de Lune opened soon after. Draw your own conclusions.
Claire Mager has done an exemplary job in restoring the building and beautifying the interior of the former Millennium and must be given credit for having been a stalwart of the North Park revival for a dozen years now, but, in the interests of truth and accuracy in reporting, the North Park News should acknowledge that it was we, the Shopoffs, who were the true pioneers, and that we were sadly too far ahead of our time.

E. Philip Shopoff
North Park