Note: the pictures on this post were taken by Rishi. He’s a great local photographer and his site is worth checking out.

A lot of people have been asking about Miracles’ fate lately. In fact, probably one out of every five people I help ask, “So, uh, like what’s the status with this place now?”

“Uh, like, I don’t know” is what I say bitterly.

There’s just only so much you can talk about one thing. It’s been about a month and a half since I got the idea to set up the Save Miracles Petition (which is now one signature short of 900). Since then a lot of people have come to me asking, “well, why don’t you try this, why don’t you try that, don’t you think you could be doing more?”

I nodded in agreement, full of guilt. But then it occurred to me … you know what, why in the fuck don’t you start doing more? I started that petition because I felt like I was one of many who felt it was worth fighting to keep Miracles a part of Cardiff. But, except for one other person, nobody else was willing to fight. Everyone comes in saying how sad it is that Miracles will be gone and it’s such a shame what’s happening to North County … and … I have a tough time hearing so much talk and seeing such little action.

</rant>

Ok, so what I’m really meaning to post is an article that was in last week’s San Diego Union Tribune about Miracles Cafe. I’ll save my comments about it for down below.

August 29, 2004

“Same as it ever was / Same as it ever was / Same as it ever was”

– “Once in a Lifetime,” Talking Heads

The song playing through the speaker system was a hit 20 years ago. Probably about the same time the smiling young woman behind the counter finishing her granola breakfast was entering kindergarten. That’s pretty much the story of Cardiff-by-the-Sea’s Miracles Café – old and new happily existing together; a mix of this and that; rock and reggae; coffee in thick, white china mugs and designer water in plastic bottles.

Like most of the North County beach communities, Cardiff has tried mightily to hold on to a bit of the funky in the midst of raging development. It helps that it’s so small, and that its residents, even while upgrading and expanding their once-tiny cottages, want to keep it that way.

But Miracles Café, or at least the little house that now holds it, is about to go the way of the $500-a-month rental. The cafe is due to be razed to make way for a two-story office building, complete with underground parking.

If that sounds very un-Cardiff to you, you’d be in agreement with some of its residents, who have complained to the city that it just won’t fit in along narrow San Elijo Avenue. Some have signed an online petition to stop the project.

Other locals, however, say they support the plan, including Brigitte Menges, Miracles’ owner. Even though the current cafe will be gone, a new one will find a home on the first floor of the building.

“It’s going to be a whole new approach,” Menges said. “It’s an old building, it’s a little cottage, and now we will get a modern office complex. It looks very nice.

“It can be really good, because I have so many options now. There will be a full kitchen and a patio, so we can combine the coffeehouse with a little more food.”

In order to compete with the Starbuckses of the world, Menges feels she has to offer more food choices, but she still wants to keep the unique feel that has kept folks coming to the cafe for 14 years.

Right now, Miracles has the look of a “before” that you’d see on one of those decorator makeover shows. The front room has orange tables that were in style, oh, never, but fit perfectly with the battered wooden floor and the humble carnations that graced the room one recent afternoon. When it’s chilly, the blue-tile fireplace can be stoked, but even in summer, patrons feel comfortable sitting around in a few well-stuffed chairs for conversation and coffee.

You can order from a menu written on a chalkboard (and decorated with voluptuous mermaids) and eat inside, or outside under an umbrella on the patio facing the street and the Pacific. At night, you can enjoy live music with your snacks.

Menges is excited about planning for the new space, and a little wistful about what will be the inevitable changes.

“It sounds really exciting,” she said. “It will be so different. It (the old Miracles) will be gone, and we will be sad, but we will have to focus on the new.”

She said she’s counting on her regulars – who include the developer of the new project – to remember Miracles during the year of construction when her business will be closed.

More than the building itself, Menges believes, it’s the people, the folks at the tables and behind the counter and the microphone, who set the place apart.

“I want people to know how much I appreciate our loyal customers,” she said. “Without them, we wouldn’t be here. We’ve had our regulars from Day One, and they are so special to us. They have made all the difference.”

The project is still in the planning stages. So even though the end is in sight, you can still pull up a chair, grab a cup of something soothing and relax.

For now, there are still Miracles to be had, coffee to be drunk and music to be heard at a tiny cafe in Cardiff-by-the-Sea.

Mary Curran-Downey can be reached at mary_currandowney@hotmail.com

My thoughts:
• Ok, so the girl working, the one eating the granola, is Missy. She’s the only one who listens to the Talking Heads at work – and she’s gone totally hippie lately with the granola thing.
• I have no idea what designer water in plastic bottles is, but it sounds interesting.
• I have seen the model and designs of the new office building. It does not look “very nice.”

• In order to compete with the Starbuckses of the world, Menges feels she has to offer more food choices, but she still wants to keep the unique feel that has kept folks coming to the cafe for 14 years.

  Read: Customers will start paying $10 for a sandwich. The rich ones should keep coming.

• The orange tables are fucking phat. I’m bringing one home when the place closes.
• What the article doesn’t say is that Brigitte’s not even sure if she’s going to start a bistro in the new building. More than anything it’s a way for the developer (who is charging Brigitte ridiculously low rent right now) a way to placate the community by saying that things aren’t going to change, Miracles will still be around. Yeah, until he triples the rent once the first lease goes up.
• In the meantime Curran-Downey is right, Miracles is still open and as great as ever. We just got some new t-shirts in last week too – something to remember North County’s greatest cafe while it’s still around.