Lucky’s Coffee Garage Opens Second Location, Drive-Thru-Only, in Lebanon NH
In late December while you were still wrapping holiday presents, Lucky’s Coffee Garage softly opened a new drive-through-only location (formerly Jake’s) at 227 Mechanic Street in Lebanon NH. Beginning on January 5, hours will be limited to Fridays and Saturdays, 7:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. Lucky’s aims eventually to expand the hours to match those of its original cafe. The menu is scaled down too, but still includes several coffee and tea and other beverages, and most importantly, those quintessential breakfast sandwiches. Make mine (always) on the homemade spinach biscuit, please.
The flagship enterprise, Lucky’s Coffee Garage in downtown Lebanon, will continue as is, described on its Facebook page as forever “a community hub, a full cafe experience, a place to meet folx, the hive!” Case in point: During my most recent visit there with a friend, we ended up in a conversation both delightful and most unexpected with a young man who graciously ceded his table, but not before we had chatted about the book open in his hands—Hermann Hesse’s Steppenwolf. (I had read it in high school, when apparently I was more erudite. Perhaps not so improbably, I checked and yes, there it was, a little yellowed but still on my bookshelf decades and umpteen moves later, next to its sister, Hesse’s Demian.)
Fun facts about coffee houses:
—The world’s first coffee house is generally acknowledged to be Kiva Han, established in Constantinople (now Istanbul, Turkey) in 1475.
—Cafe Le Procope in Paris was opened in 1686 by Francesco Procopio dei Coltelli, a Sicilian chef. Sumptuously appointed, it hosted artists and political figures like Benjamin Franklin, Victor Hugo, Voltaire, and George Sand. You can still get “un café” at Le Procope, the oldest cafe in the city—though À La Petite Chaise may beg to differ. Le Procope was also the first to introduce ice cream as a dessert. It now has WiFi.
—Caffe Florian, founded in 1720, is thought to be the oldest continuously-operated coffee house. (Le Procope apparently closed for a number of years and then reopened.) Located in Venice, Italy, it was the only place of its kind and time that welcomed women as customers.
—A tip of the hat to Caffe Reggio in New York City, home to America’s first espresso machine in 1927. It has sometimes starred in movies, including Godfather II.
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And in case you are wondering . . . Susan B. Apel shuttered a lifelong career as a law professor to continue an interest (since kindergarten) in writing. Her freelance business, The Next Word, includes literary and feature writing; her work has appeared in a variety of lit mags and other publications including Art New England, The Woven Tale Press, The Arts Fuse, and Persimmon Tree. She connects with her neighbors through Artful, her blog about arts and culture in the Upper Valley. She’s in love with the written word.