Janna M.
San Francisco, Ca
There are some businesses that feel like home the minute you step inside. Cafe La Boheme felt that way to me. The beer I ordered added to this fuzzy feeling - it's a good thing they don't have cushy sofas or I might have wound up spending the night.
Yelpers who have identified La Boheme as good for people-watching are spot on. There were a bunch of things going on at the same time: a couple of students reading a few tables apart (will the cozy atmosphere spark a romance?), friends catching up over glasses of wine, a few people tapping furiously on laptops, a group plotting a revolution, a girl waiting for a douchebag craigslist buyer who never shows (me).
I only had the aforementioned beer (Fat Tire), but my friend had a cup of coffee and declared it to be very good. They also have quite a few food options - yummy-sounding salads, baba ghanoush, big cookies. I'll definitely come back next time I'm in the neighborhood. This time I'll be plotting a revolution, though, not being stood up.
"The simple yet delightful flavors at this Cafe are worth every penny."
"A great atmosphere and excellent service makes this Cafe one of the best in the area."
Jorge Argueta Wrote this years years back: he said:
Cafe La Boheme is a wonderful place I have loved and respected for the
past 25 years. Throughout the years I have been writing poems about the
most faithful customers who also happen to be good friends of mine. I
am thankful to Awad, my friend and owner of La Boheme for allowing me
to re-introduce my book, La Boheme & Othe...r Poems in this format.
For a few weeks I will be presenting poems here until the full book is
exposed. Enjoy...
ODE TO CAFÉ LA BOHEME
From all parts of the world
they come to La Boheme
one by one they arrive.
La Boheme is the United Nations.
Here we speak Spanish, French,
Italian, Arabic, German, English,
and also lots of shit
La Boheme is the home,
the refuge, the sanctuary
of all those exiled,
the consolation of the lonely
and the mad.
La Boheme has meant love for many
Ziggy and Greta fell in love here,
Rogelio and Patricia,
Julia, Monolo.
At La Boheme all were known
all were loved.
Many are no longer there,
like Alfredito “milonga”
he will never come to La Boheme
like he did every afternoon
now he is under the soil
of Argentina’s pampas
telling his jokes
and his stories to the gauchos.
Eleonora went home to Venezuela,
Luiggi returned to Italy
And we never heard from them again.
La Boheme is seventeen years old.
The tables are not the same
Nor are the cups or the walls.
Of all the waitresses
only Glenna has stayed.
She is there, day after day
with sweet thunder in her smile.
Glenna knows all those
who come to the cafe
what they drink
what time they arrive.
Glenna has great love for La Boheme.
The other day when I spoke with her
she told me with sadness in her smile
of how she missed the old bohemia
the one she knows will never return.
Comments from friends including our very own Glenna:
"In these poems Jorge Argueta has truly captured the essence and spirit of Cafe La Boheme." GLENNA RANDOLPH
"Jorge Argueta's La Boheme and Other Poems is a document of exile,
commradery and devotion to the humorous, dark and poignant rythyms of
daily life. The people he writes about are all from other lands, living
in San Francisco, captured by the poet's eye between cafe walls. It is
lyrical, compassionate and skillfully put-together." NEELY CHERKOVSKI
"Like a master cartographer, Jorge Argueta helps us identify his poems
as the missing parts of the puzzle of the map of life at Cafe LaBoheme." JUAN PABLO GUTIERREZ
