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Thu
Sep 1
2011

Will Filter Cafe Break the Curse at a Tough Corner in Bella Vista?

Nice graffiti

A few months ago, a neighborhood coffee shop bit the dust as Mazag Cafe, a quaint little Mediterranean spot run by a friendly mother-daughter team, shuttered its doors after about two years at the corner of 10th and Carpenter Sts. One would think that a place serving up the essentials: coffee beverages, breakfast sandwiches, pastries and the like, would be embraced by the neighborhood, but it seems that things just didn’t work out. Before Mazag Cafe took over the space, InFusion Coffee & Tea of Mt. Airy transformed the space into a coffeehouse, only to close about a year and a half later. They too, served the typical coffeehouse fare of coffee, pastries, teas and smoothies. Both cafes also benefited from outdoor seating and faced quaint Bardascino Park, where you can watch people play bocce ball, catch a concert, or eavesdrop on the old Italian men chatting the day away, while sipping your latte.

Cursed?

Luckily for Bella Vistians (Bella Vistarians? Bella Vistos? Eh, you get the point), Filter Cafe of Old City is opening one of many planned new locations in the turn key coffee shop space. Filter touts themselves as “Philadelphia’s only REAL cyber cafe,” offering free wi-fi, PC workstations, printing, scanning, and of course, the requisite floppy disk drives (seriously). Filter features local Bucks County Coffee, countless tea options, and offers heartier fare like sandwiches, wraps, bagels, and maybe a salad bar.

 

We always hate to see any place close up shop, but we’re pleased to see the space filled so quickly- we hate vacant commercial space so much. Two coffee concepts have not survived at this corner, and we’re not sure whether it’s due to lack of foot traffic, poor execution, or whether the corner is simply cursed. With other locations to take the financial burden off of this new one, it seems that Filter Cafe will at least have a higher margin for error than its predecessors. With that, along with some new product offerings, we’re confident that they’ll be able to give the neighborhood what it wants, even if the neighborhood doesn’t know it yet. They’ll officially open for business next week.
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COMMENTS
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Posted in Bella Vista | Tagged , , , , , | 10 Comments
  • http://twitter.com/ThePhaggot Phaggot

    So… This is going to end poorly.

    Filter opened up originally in the Gayborhood a few months ago. In the old space formerly occupied by Spruce Street Video and (even further back) PHAG Shop.  Small space.  They were their for a hot, wet second and then disappeared.  They were barely open, had a friendly but odd staff, and no customers.  Also – who needs PC work stations?  Seriously?  Not to be elitist, but can you imagine the element THAT brings in? 

  • Philadelphia Professional

    What “element” are you referring to???  Professionals who use computer work stations?  I think you meant to use the word “there” not “their”.  Maybe you could use a pc work station to improve your English?

  • mikr

    with Spruce Street Espresso opening up next door in the newly reno’d Oddfellows building i see filter’s closing on 12th as a smart thing – how to compete with with a neighborhood favorite that is 3 times the size and in a prime location not a stone’s throw from it? 

  • Manincognito

    go easy on ‘em. They’re real estate agents, not writers.

  • Manincognito

    go easy on ‘em. They’re real estate agents, not writers.

  • adam

    Yeah, seriously… if anything is cursed it’s the landlords at 12th street, bon or whoever (that probably forced the video store to consolidate their Hollywood titles and porn in the same location in the basement lol). Filter is better than that neighborhood’s real estate b.s…happy to see them closer to me in S. Philly!!!

  • Guest

    He’s referring to the commenter “Phaggot”.  Not NakedPhilly writers :)

  • nakedphillyjen

    The idea of computers must work, if they’ve seen success at 12th St and Old City.  Not everyone has a laptop still these days.  We’re just excited to see something good go in, but wished they served some Stumptown coffee!

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    [...] months ago, we noted that Filter Cafe had taken over a vacant coffeeshop space at 10th & Carpenter Sts.  The space had changed hands over the previous few years, first operating as InFusion, [...]

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