Since it was the last day for Boccherini's, I decided we had to make a trip there, just for old times' sake. I overheard the owner saying to one of the many dedicated customers there saying goodbye (it was crowded with other "one last time" visitors the whole time we were there) that today was 16 years to the day since they opened.

That means it opened when I was 12, and therefore had been part of the mid-valley hangout scene throughout my teen and young adult years. I remember going there with friends as a young teenager. We felt so cool, sitting in a coffee house downtown with no grownups or anything, in a neat old building with an exposed brick wall that had, like, actual art hanging on it. We hung out at Boccherini's before I ever even heard of Starbucks, or knew what the terms venti or macchiato meant. And certainly way before Dutch Bros. and other coffee huts dotted the roadsides.

Eric and I had a lot of dates there, sipping coffee and playing gin. Today was the first, and obviously last, time I ever took the girls there. I think Eric and I just always thought of it as a date place, not a place to hang out with the family. Too bad, because they really did behave beautifully, drinking their hot chocolate and playing with a puzzle.



Boccherini's really filled a niche in downtown Albany--I think every town needs a good, independent, locally-owned coffee house. Not that I don't drink Starbucks too, but it's nice to not have every place in town be part of a franchise. No Boccherini's and no Book Bin--two downtown businesses I really, really liked, now gone by the wayside. Sad. I hope that some of my other favorites--Frogs & Pollywogs, Sunnypatch Boutique, Glam and Clemenza's will keep going strong in downtown.