 "Photo: Mick Bicknell")
The iced Mojo will no longer be poured in its home on the Drag.
Mojo's Daily Grind, an 11-year-old coffeehouse staple, will close its doors Jan. 1 because of financial losses, said manager Naiman Rigby.
"The next month will be less like a closing and more like a party," Rigby said. "This place will party so hard that it will asphyxiate on its own vomit. We're gonna go down like a rock star."
Rigby said the monthly rent was $5,500, and monthly earnings before tax and production costs were $22,000, but the coffeehouse was still not making enough money. Next door, Affinity Salon owner Lisa Beall said she feels the burn of the Drag's sweltering expenses.
"The Drag is a drag," she said.
Part of the money problems start with students, Rigby said.
He said he believes not enough college students were visiting the coffee, arts and music hangout.
"They're just not coming here; they're going to Starbucks," he said.
The national coffee chain recently opened a location on 38th and Guadalupe. Spider House Cafe, Little City and La Tazza Fresca are three area shops that all competed with Mojo's for loyal customers. Several years ago, Little City moved a location closer to campus and its target demographic.
One by one, coffee shops including Peet's Coffee House and now Mojo's have closed doors to save expenses and avoid bankruptcy. However, Rigby said he is hopeful the Mojo's owners will develop a new location in East Austin.
Wade Beesley opened Mojo's on March 3, 1994. In the 10 years he ran the business, he said he noticed too many entrepreneurs jumping on the coffee bandwagon.
"There have been 10 coffee shops on the Drag at one time, and there's just not enough of a market for that," he said. "I think we already see some of these local places running each other out of business. When Little City moved closer to campus I lost a lot of my on-foot customers."
While Beesley said Starbucks' expansion has affected the ability to operate and manage a local coffee joint, he said he suspects the real problems began when he left and the next Mojo's owner, John Wallace, took over duties. Wallace gutted the shop's graffiti-laced image and began enforcing new rules, such as eliminating what Rigby calls the "Mojo's pay when you have the money" policy.
"He just came in and started doing things that pissed the regular customers off," Beesley said.
Other local store owners and managers remember business at Mojo's tanking under Wallace's leadership.
"That place lost a lot of customers when Wade sold it," Pangea store manager Amy Kennedy recalled. "It's a shame that they're going out of business, because we've had a great working relationship with them the eight years we've been here."
In an open letter to the Austin community, Wallace said that Mojo's tradition of allowing graffiti artists free reign on its property's walls had failed, because the artists didn't self-regulate.
"This is a lose-lose situation for all," he wrote. "But our livelihood is more important than your painting, and we pay the rent; not you. Move on. Make peace with the fact that this bit of history is over."
After only six months, Wallace tallied his losses and sold the coffeehouse to Bill and Louisa Brinsmade who, some say, were starting to regain the dejected clientele and turn the tides. By Wednesday, they had put six months of work into reestablishing the shop.
"We have lots of art shows here, and in addition to displaying Austin artists, all of the paintings and things you see here were painted and done by people who work here," Rigby said pointing behind the counter. "We did an all-nude art show once, and there was a naked photo of me hanging in this coffee shop. My boss said to me the next day 'Hey, I saw your penis last night' and it was OK."
As customers overheard Rigby discuss closing the shop, they began imagining part of their routine dying.
"Not too many places allow dogs," Austin resident Mingus Malone observed. He had brought his "full-blown mutt" inside while he ordered his favorite - the bottomless cup of coffee. He said he usually drops in with his dog three times a week.
"Aw, Mojo's is closing," another customer exclaimed. "I guess, I'll have to come by here every day the next month."
A few blocks away from Mojos, Starbucks was bustling with customers. Thirteen people stood in line, moving up to the counter to give their orders, while the employees tried keeping up. One student grabbed her Caramel Macchiato and textbook and ran, telling a friend she was late for class. A Starbucks manager at the 24th St. and San Antonio St. location said he believes business is dictated by college students. The winter and summer months can be a little slower, but during the fall and spring semesters, customers are coming in and out regularly.
At Mojo's an hour earlier, Rigby served four customers in that time span. He conversed in detail with all four.
He referenced a picture with employees and gubernatorial candidate Kinky Friedman, who Rigby said was a known patron.
"Those places like Starbucks are almost like doctor's offices," Little City coffee roaster Nathan Cook said. He has worked for Little City the last seven years and said he would never visit another coffee shop. While professing his employment loyalties, he said he was saddened to see Mojo's, a place he said he used to "hang out" at go.
"We're doing pretty good here, and we have a good lunch rush," Little City counter employee Ray Colgan said. "We split the rent with hairdressers, so it's not as bad, but I can see how some of these other coffee places are having to close. Peet's made good coffee, and while we've picked up some of their customers, it's certainly not what we were hoping for."
Rigby said he will continue to receive a $250 stipend for his time at Mojo's until February. At that time, depending on the success of a Mojo's relocation, he will decide where to go next with his life.
"Mojo's is dead on the 1st, but it will never die," he said.
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