Changes Coming To Lyndale, Big Changes

Just went to Caffetto to go through my receipts.  Hadn't been there in a couple weeks.  It was largely empty, which meant I could find a table, thank God.  There were times when I couldn't, and though I appreciate Caffetto having good business, that meant I couldn't find a table.  Caffetto is more a winter place than a summer place, though, so maybe I shouldn't be surprised I had a place all to myself.

To park, I nowadays park out on the street, about a block away.  It's free, although I park on Lyndale, which gets plenty busy.  The bike lane is another buffer from all the cars that whizz by, but I still am kind of scared that a car will hit me.  Also, it ain't the safest place.  I try to go there in the nighttime, which is often the right time to go down there and work on my computer, but there is an underlying level of unsavoriness which keeps my antennae up -- well, that and all the traffic.  And maybe trying to find a spot at the coffeeshop, which is more of nighttime place than a daytime place.

That might be changing, however.  The place I park in front of had been a uniform store, but it closed down (I want to say) about a year ago, maybe more.  But the property has been bought by this restaurant and business called Baba's Hummus.  I first heard of them during the 2021 Minnesota State Fair.  They were a new vendor there, and their Chili Baba was The Best New Food Of The Fair that year.  And they have redone that store to where it is about ready to open.  I hadn't been at Caffetto, or that area of Lyndale, in about ... oh, I want to say a month, maybe three weeks.  But the last I went to have coffee there, it was still a boarded-up dump.  I don't know how they did it, or how quickly or well, but it's a brand-spanking new restaurant and market.  So much so that I'm now scared I won't be able to park there anymore.  And then I won't be able to hang out at The Best Coffeeshop In The Twin Cities.

The place's grand opening, which was initially planned for the summer, then delayed to the fall, has now been brought back up to Saturday.  I will go ... to see if I can park where I usually park.