I just had to say that. Actually, Hard Times Café is closed. Plain and simple.

Thank your lucky stars for Yats. Bart Peterson should give them a plaque or something. Declare a citiwide Yats Day. The people of Avon should be ashamed that the Yats out there didn't make a go of it. It's not that the food is the best you'll ever eat. Or that it's elegant or some kind of food "experience" that will send you to another planet. But in the realm of cheap food in this city, it's really one of a kind. I mean, there are sandwich shops, pizza places, China buffets. But this stuff is better than all of it, it's cheap, it's consistent, and it's served in locations that are funky enough that you don't have to be embarrassed when you take people from cooler cities here.

My first year of gardening at my new house was a disaster. I thought that I could grow some herbs and tomatoes out in the backyard, which faces west. Even with all of the old apartment buildings on Meridian Street, I figured I’d get enough light. And the exhaust from the traffic would add a little urban terroir to my produce. But the mulberry trees throwing shade, the poor soil, and an infestation of little white bugs turned my little plot into a nature preserve. My salad days were over.