My friend Joe sent this to me in the mail, a letter obviously not written by him because he would not have mispelled the name of the place in dire need of being saved.
So here's the story folks: My beloved coffee shop from home could possibly be taken over by an unoriginal beauty salon where women pay entirely too much money to get their hair cut.
If you are a Diedrichs (on Hazard and Westheimer) fan like me, who lived there during school, or shared a significant moment of community there please email or write a letter to the addys below. Heck - if you care anything about community and have your own Diedrichs in whatever neck of the woods you lay claim to, please write an email or a letter.
And thanks for your support.
People who own the property: T-Con Properties LTD/2701 Kipling St./ Houston 77098-1214. Their phone number is 713-626-8888
The Upper Hand (Unoriginal, imperialist hair salon): 1905 Westheimer, Houston 77098 Phone No: 713-520-0772 (theupperhand.com) They also have a location at: 11805 Westeimer #390, Phone No. 281-497-8280
Other Emails: If sending emails to houston chronicle, houston press, or khou, for best response identify yourself.
Houston Chronicle: howard.decker@chron.com
Houston Press: letters@houstonpress.com
H Town news channel: assignments@khou.com
9 comments:
As much as I've enjoyed hanging out at Diedrich's over the years, I can't say I'll be doing their PR work for them. It's not CBGBs, after all. And given that Diedrich's has sold their Orange County locations (where they started, for goodness sake) to Starbucks, it's hard for me to feel all down homey and want to fight to keep them open.
And I think you're thumbing your nose at the The Upper Hand (sorry, couldn't resist) a bit unfairly. Best I can tell, they're locally-owned, though they are part of a larger (Bumble & Bumble) network, whereas Diedrich's, are still based in OC; all the profits head back to the left coast.
What's more, they can probably afford to pay a lot more for the space, since their clientele pays more per minute in the store on average than Diedrich's does. So, they're likely to win any fair bid on the space.
There are still lots of good places to get coffee in Houston, within a mile or so of that location...and if you want to talk about changes on lower Westheimer, I still remember Infinite Records...
Jen, as much as we all hate to see it go, it is a sinkhole for a business. Most of the people who are actually in there for more than 10 minutes spend no more than $5 and often stay for hours (I know for I am guilty of spending more hours than dollars there myself).
I'm just glad that I quit the job that gave me opportunity to have a bagel there every morning, because now I'd have to find a new place if I still worked that job. As for the bagels, though, they came from a shop not half a mile up Shepherd. But I digress.
I'm going back to H-town in a couple of weeks and will get to spend a little time there before the last days, so I'll do my best to share the love...
hey dennis and mike:
well, i think you all have great points, but the reason why i ask for support is because that place is incredibly special to me, for reasons that i did not disclose in my blog. i guess it represents a refuge for me b/c i was going thru some of the hardest times of life and every morning i would go there and met alot of special people. so... of course the real world and money and the reasons you mentioned (bad business, good business next door, or the fact that corporate diedrichs sold out)trumps my feelings about it. trey was right when he said it was like an ebeneezer for people, because it has been that for me. so i guess that is why i am holding out for the place. i am loyal to the death :)
hope you guys are having a great week! dennis - drink some coffee for me.
will do- and I understand what you mean about it being an Ebenezer, but the people made the place special to me, not so much the location itself.
by the way- Iwent back to SC to the place where I lived out the toughest years of my life- the coffe guy had been bought out by a Starbucks. It was sad.
But then I realized that the barista was the same guy (he was no dummy- he knew where his bread was buttered)! We caught up on the hospital business and stuff and then he gave me free coffee! It was about the friendship with the barista rather than his coffee anyway. Hope that cheers you up a bit. I'm gonna miss Deidrich Coffee too (although they stil have the second store on the 'Trose).
yeah, i love all the guys there - sean, danny, alex, tae, sarah, and joe. my old faithfuls. those guys encouraged me so much when i was raising support, i don't think they realize that.
One correction to my post above: the Lovely Diana made me aware that the local Diedrichs are franchises, so the profits, such as they are, stay local.
Thanks Mike for the correction :)
I'm very sad to see that Diedrich lost the battle and is now gone. There is more information about the company here:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/diedrichforum/
Investors there would love to here about your comments. Nobody is happy with the closure of the Winlow location.
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