The Ballad of the Writer's Cafe

I went down to my favorite little cafe last night, where I go all the time, to eat, drink, hang out with my favorite artistic friends and wax poetic about all things artsy, cultural and esoteric. I feel at home there, in my element, comfortable and secure.

Occasionally I sit on the patio and write before my friends arrive. And it occurred to me that this café has become my creative hub. So I got to thinking that there is a long romantic history of the writer hanging out at cafes and sipping their favorite cocktails and trying to tap the muse.

While working on Road to Glory in Hollywood, William Faulkner drank and actually mixed his own beloved Mint Juleps at the Musso & Frank Grill and at least kept the taste of the South with him while he was out there in crazy La La Land. Earnest Hemmingway; however, drank mojitos at La Bodeguita de Medio in Havana, Cuba and famously scrawled on their walls, ""Mi mojito en La Bodeguita, mi daiquiri en El Floridita!" And I'm not exactly sure what O. Henry drank, but I do know that he wrote the classic Gift of the Magi right there in New York's famous Pete's Tavern, a place I often go to while I'm in the Big Apple, too.

Somerset Maugham once said that if you sat in the Café de la Paix in Paris long enough, everyone would pass by. At least for Shreveport and my little world, that place happens to be The Columbia Café, at the corner of King's & Creswell, where you can find me out on the patio, sipping my preferred glass of red wine, and watching the traffic scream down King's Highway as if it were the Brick Yard or catching bits and pieces of Wu Tang Clan blaring from a car stereo stopped at the light. If you sit there long enough, you might even be a primary witness to a traffic accident at the intersection. Ok, so maybe it's not nearly as romantic as Paris or Havana but for me here in Shreveport, it's where I can actually feel the heartbeat of my city and observe it's rhythm. This is my very own writer's café and it's where I go to hang out with my muse!

So I'm wondering, where is it that you all go to tap your muse or wax poetic, even if you aren't exactly a writer?

Cheers!

Tracy :-*