The Past Comes to the Surface

They're almost done with demolition at the Recovery Cafe site at 2nd & Bell. One of the weird features of this neighborhood is that the past pops up to the surface when something is taken away. The ruins of the Recovery Cafe are a great place to see this in action. Take a look:

That wall belongs to the Wasabi Bistro these days. I thought it smelled like address machines in there! This would have been great for an installment of What Did This Use to Be? but honestly, nobody remembers. All I can recall is that before the Wasabi expanded into that space, it sold flat screen TVs. This was back when they were expensive and exotic. They aren't any more. I guess it was the same for address machines. I mean, if there's an entire store for them, they were probably, like all business machines of the past, expensive and bulky. There was no such thing as a small, expensive machine; if it was big, people felt like they were getting their money's worth. But times change. The addressing machine craze of yesteryear dies down. Flat screen TVs become cheaper. And your place of business eventually becomes a sushi restaurant. It is the way of things.