Mourners held a jazz funeral Saturday to mark the passing of a beloved Baton Rouge institution.
The grieving dressed in black, except for powdered sugar stains — the mark of a good beignet. Those close to the departed remembered the good times and talked of days past while trying to hold back their tears.
Coffee Call was moving.
The modest little coffee shop has stood the test of time and the influx of java giants like Starbucks and CC’s Coffee House.
A 27-year occupant of the Village Square shopping center, Coffee Call moved to a new home this weekend to make room for the new College Drive Wal-Mart. To owner John Cannatella, whose father Vince opened the store in 1976, it only seemed appropriate to send his place off with a proper funeral.
Festivities began early Saturday morning with complimentary coffee and beignets. Longtime patrons then gathered for a eulogy and jazz funeral procession to the new store.
Many spoke at the eulogy, including Mark Normand, assistant director of graduate admissions for the University. To him and his wife Laura, Coffee Call is more than a place to meet friends and drink coffee, it is where they were married.
The couple’s New Year’s Eve 2002 wedding was witnessed by a room full of Coffee Call patrons, most of whom they had never met. After the ceremony, they toasted with glasses of caf�au lait and cut a cake of beignets.
“I was looking for a cheap place to get married,” Normand joked during the eulogy. “Every time I come in here, someone I’ve never met comes up to me and says ‘I watched you get married.'”
To many students, Coffee Call is a part of everyday life. Eric Gremillion, an English and German sophomore, says he will miss the atmosphere that comes with an old building.
To Jerry Steen, a retired car salesman, the coffee shop is a second home. For the past five years, he has watched the world go by from his stool.
“It’s the best seat in the house,” said Steen, who sits in the same stool every day. “It doesn’t wobble.”
To many, the new Coffee Call lacks the warmth and atmosphere that comes with 27 years of grime and cob webs.
“The coffee and the beignets may be the same,” said Isral Duke, a graphic design junior, “but the new location lacks the community-like atmosphere of the old location.”
The new location features a drive-thru and an architectural design similar to the old Coffee Call. It is located about 300 yards from the old building near the College Drive Office Depot.