It took me, a non-driver, a year to discover that this nearby gas station, 36 LYN refuel station, has the best coffee—from a machine that grinds the beans per cup. A neighbor told me. The local owner chooses to carry food from small local businesses—the beans are roasted by Peace Coffee, who deliver by bike. (How they get raw beans from coffee growers, I don’t know.)
The owner is a Black man, Lonnie McQuirter. In the turbulent days after the police murdered George Floyd in 2020, when unmarked pickup trucks (some agitators were white supremacists) were cruising the neighborhood, neighbors sat out all night to protect the gas station. And this mural went up on its side, where I’m sitting at a picnic table before going to work:
THIS IS OUR CITY.
Someone could have used the ominous warning from British TV show The League of Gentlemen—though it’s not well-known here: “This is a local shop for local people.”
