The only thing that’s introduced me to more friends than music is coffee. Over a steaming latte, minutes swirl into hours of talk, laughter, and peaceful contentedness. Welcome complements to a day at the coffee shop include music and poetry; Café Noir, a local coffee shop, is doing its part in providing a venue for local artists to share their musical talents and word weaving.
Café Noir, at the corner of Battles and Broadway in Santa Maria, was Café Monet in years past and was always known as a community hub where locals could gather to meet with friends and enjoy some quality coffee and food. The quintessential Santa Maria shop has been recently revitalized by the hard work and careful consideration of current owner Laurette Oien, who remembers frequenting the location back when it was Shakey’s in her youth.
“I would come here at night when I was going to Hancock, and I always had the feeling I would own it one day,” she said, “And I came in once when it was Café Monet and was thinking the same thing when my niece Jessica said, ‘Hey you should own this place.’”
The location, named Café Noir by its previous owners, went up for sale in 2010. Oien bought it in September of that year, her niece filling the role of manager and chief baker, producing all the café’s baked goods in house. My personal favorite has to be the Russian tea cookies, which pair perfectly with a piping hot espresso drink.
Oien established the location as not just a quality coffee shop, but a place you can get some great sandwiches, soups, and salads—and she saw the customer base grow. With more people came more artists, including musicians. A major step toward accommodating the musically inclined was her purchase of communal instruments available to play in her shop. Drums, a keyboard, and an acoustic guitar sit next to the shop’s iconic fish tank, just waiting to be played by musicians who frequent the establishment.
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“I just thought it would look cool over there. I saw the bongo drums and they matched the floor, and I just had to have them,” she said. “It’s like, my father, whenever we would go somewhere, if there was a piano in the restaurant he would sit down and play. I just thought it would be neat for people to play if they wanted.”
Café Noir has also started playing host to a weekly Open Mic on Thursdays from 7 to 9 p.m. The event is characterized by a relaxed environment of local musicians, poets, and even comedians sharing their music and linguistic skills with one another. The musicians will often make use of the community instruments, improvising ensembles and music that otherwise would have gone unheard.
In the first week of April, Santa Maria Rhythm and Rhyme is moving its weekly gathering to Café Noir on Wednesdays from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. The group is made up mostly of poets, but also welcomes musicians and other performers to share. The group was founded by a few local poets, including Terry McConnell, P.J. Schrotel, Terry Durden, and the former owners of the group’s former meeting location (Coffee and Company, which included Candice Meras and myself). The group has hopped coffee shops ever since Coffee and Company sold, always finding welcome hole-in-the-wall-type locations to read poetry and play acoustic music.
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Many local poets read past and new creations at the Rhythm and Rhyme. B.J. Riley, the penname of a local professional, reads her playful and often emotional poetry to the group. Daniel Wilcox, a several-times-published poet who just released a new book, delivers fiery readings of his masterfully crafted verse. And Terry McConnell emcees the show with his usual tongue-in-cheek humor and insightful poetry. The move to Café Noir will afford the group much more room to expand its horizons.
Local singer songwriter Champion McConnell (son of Terry) has been performing at Rhythm and Rhyme for years and now frequents the Thursday night Open Mic to play his music. He’s performed at Café Noir for years, even back when it was Café Monet.
“I have seen the many changes happening here,” he said. “I think Laurette has come through with a more positive vision of this business. The Thursday night Open Mic shows how the public really wants an outlet.”
I can personally attest to that. Champion and I collaborate musically together and have performed the last couple of weeks at the Open Mic. Café Noir is the perfect size for acoustic music and can fit a good crowd of people who are always warm and welcome for any kind of performing artist. We’ve performed at Rhythm and Rhyme for years, seeing it move to various locations around town, and feel a certain amount of relief to see what we used to call “The Wednesday Night Habit” get a home.
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Another friend and a virtuosic guitarist in his own right, Sonny Scozzari, has been playing at Rhythm and Rhyme since its first meetings and is glad to see the weekly meet-up move to Café Noir.
“The atmosphere here is ingenious, I mean, they have a fish tank,” he said. “This place is like Mr. Rick’s in Casablanca; it’s totally art deco. We need someone in here playing ‘As Time Goes By’ on the piano. I would like to see this place fill up; it would be awesome.”
Scozzari, Champion, myself, and other musicians often collaborate on the spot at these events, improvising blues, rock, folk, or jazz music, letting the music take us wherever it may. Music has a knack for reflecting the environment in which it’s created, and the vibrations moving through Café Noir make for good harmony.
“I think that people who are thinking of coming here should know that every week there’s going to be something special happening here,” Champion said. “Someone is going to jam something new, a poet is going to read something they have never read before, and it will only happen on that night.”
Contact Calendar Editor Joe Payne at jpayne@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Mar 29 – Apr 5, 2012.