Well, the menu was resolutely 1950’s “Continental” well after the rest of the country had moved on from there. Duck a L’Orange and escargots Bourguinon were considered the height of luxurious sophistication at one time in American restaurants, but by the 90’s they were kind of quaint. The whole menu was like that. And by Victorian Cathouse I mean, red flocked wall paper, heavy drapes, lots of mirrors and gold furniture and heavy upholstery. It was a bit hard to understand given that this place was and is in a prime piece of real estate. San Diego took a while to catch up to some other cities in terms of cuisine, but not that long.
I used to work in a building on Torrence Ave. in Calumet City, IL. On the bottom floor was a bank that never had any customers. I don’t think they kept any money there either. Once, I went in to trade out my ten dollar bill for a roll of quarters and the teller said no - that I had to be a member for her to do that. :dubious:
There is a pizza place on my way to the mothership that has been there for about 4 years.
More often than not, they are closed with the lights out at 8PM.
On the weekend.
I gotta wonder…
Yeah, Hillcrest. Where was your cokeandadonut joint? Downtown?
cher3, where was the Victorian Cathouse? I’ve lived her about 16 years, I’m just curious if I can guess the restaurant.
Fifteen years ago there was a storefront on McCully Ave in Honolulu between Beretania and Kapilolani that had soft porn posters covering their windows. All of them. I passed by frequently and once ducked in for a pack of smokes*. That’s about all they had - cigarettes, Doritos, and PopTarts.
Years later I read an article regarding certain bodegas in NYC and I’ll be damned if I didn’t hear Frau Ohlenkamp saying “ESS KLICKT!” between my ears.
*Not one ABC store on that entire stretch. The hell?
When I was in college a couple of years ago, my buddy operated a landscaping business which he basically used to sell weed. People would order weed over the phone and he would drive up in his truck with a lawnmower and leafblower in the back. He did actual landscaping maybe 2 or 3 days a month.
A fruit and vegetable place opened up the road from me last year. They actually took over two shops and converted them into one. Then they had all these grand signs out front about how they had the best and freshest vegetables in the local area. Many of the vegetable names where misspelled. I went in there twice in the many months that it was open. Although they had all the tables and display bins of the usual shop they seemed to have less vegetables than I keep at home. On one occassion they had a single bag of potatoes and a single pumpkin. Both times I went in none of the guys there made any effort to serve me and they paid no attention at all. How they kept this going for so long I have no idea. I figured it had to be some kind of tax writeoff.
It is now a semingly quite successful corner shop since being taken over by a young Lebanese family who work it really hard.
Maybe that was why my lawn guy hated me, I wanted him to mow my lawn.
How the heck do these people, pizza guys, lawn guys, etc actually get that kind of business? I don’t have delivery guys offering me weed.
In the case of my friend it was pretty much anybody we knew who smoked. For instance, if I met some people at a party who were smoking herb I would go up to them and tell them that if they ever need some to give my friend a call. The stoner subculture was fairly small and tight at this college, so everybody basically knew each other. My buddy was making about $2000 a month this way so he had to appear to have a legitimate job.
Lemon Grove. Go fig.
Probably the same way most drug dealers get business, but on a bigger scale: all their friends get high, and their friends have friends who get high too, and eventually word spreads throughout the local user population. And apparently (according to my donut shop experience), they pick up a vibe off certain customers and hint around until they figure out whether the guest is amenable. Which is also a low-level dealer tactic.
Back in the late 1980’s, I took my mother shopping in the largest mall in town. The one that had all the high end stores and was located in a fairly wealthy area of town.
In the center of the mall, right in the main walkway, just off of the huge foodcourt was - a kite store.
It was a small shop, to be sure, but all they sold was kites and kite related material, which I guess mostly consisted of string and paper. While they had some mechandise that was a step up from the 99 cent kites I used to buy as a kid, it didn’t have anything huge or special like you sometimes see on TV or in a magazine.
Just … kites. In the center of the largest, most expensive mall in town. How many kites do you figure they had to sell just to make rent?
Now, I don’t think the shop was a front for anything, especially since everyone in the food court could see right through it, but it is a little strange.
gladtobeblazed, I’m surprised you’d associate with such a person! 
Hey, it worked for Mr. Miyagi in Karate Kid Part III. Even after Mike Barnes, Snake and Dennis stole all the trees, the business still managed to get by.
There’s a gas station that has prices that are always $.50 or so higher than the other gas stations around (and there are at least 3 other stations in a 2-block radius). It’s not part of a national chain. It’s not visible from the freeway. The place is almost always deserted, except once in a while a semi will be seen filling up there. It’s been there for over a decade.
Pretty strange, eh?
Sorry, but that’s crazy. Color tile sells tile. I’ve seen their ads on TV in the past. Right now, I work within 2 miles of at least 3 tile stores and 2 or 3 carpet stores. They seem legit.
And vacuum repair places likely make lots of their money by selling used vacuums. I lived near a great one in San Fran…
Joe
There are a number of bars in Bangkok that don’t seem to have any reason for existence. They’ve been around for years but never seem to have any customers when I go in. The Other Office Bar in Patpong 2 jumps to mind immediately. I’ve always wondered whether they’re a front for drug-money laundering.
There’s a Mexican Restaurant here, too, called Tia Maria that’s actually quite good. It opened in 1990. In a rather hard-to-find spot. The food is actually quite good – for Mexican food in Bangkok – but we’re often the only customers in there. I remember we had a big meal in there once with some friends and lingered over margaritas for a full two hours during a weekend dinnertime, and NO ONE else ever came in. We DO see other customers from time to time, and once or twice I’ve seen it MAYBE a quarter full, but it’s rare to see more than one other table with people, if that.
When we were living in Honolulu, there was a golf-pro shop close to Waikiki that DID get busted by the narcs. Owned and operated by South Korean or Japanese nationals, it was not a money-laundering setup, but rather the drugs were actually moving through there. The funny part is that after the raid and the arrests, the cops did not lock up, and I knew some people who went inside and helped themselves to a lot of stuff. There were some mighty fine bottles of alcohol in there; I know because the imbibing of some of it was shared with me.
Except for one inside Ala Moana Shopping Center, we’ve never seen an ABC outside of Waikiki proper, but inside Waikiki you can’t swing a cat without hitting one.
There’s a restaurant in [del]Murfreesboro[/del] Bug Tussle with a Classical Theme in it’s signage.
Just off the Interstate. Land is sold gold in value, a license to print money for anybody who wants to open a motel, 24-hour fast food joint, or service station.
Nobody is ever there.
Only open evenings.
Nobody I know has ever eaten there.
Run down, seedy building, weeds in the gravel parking lot.
Windows carefully tinted (read “blacked-out”), or draped.
Mom used to say that it had to be a front.
Dad, being very streetwise, carefully says nothing, & will not discuss it.
Obviously, it’s to confuse us Muggles. Probably it’s a portkey destination for some high-end Wizard Emporium.
IME anywhere in Hawaii you are likely to find tourists in Hawaii, you will find an ABC store. They are all over Kona, and I have seen them in out parts of Oahu not just Waikiki.
Guam also has a shitload of ABC stores.
Oh my God! They’re breeding!
Now that you mention it, I think we DID see one in Kona and MAYBE Lahaina. But while we were living there, I’m pretty sure there weren’t any on Oahu outside of Waikiki except Ala Moana Mall. This was many years ago, though, but I don’t remember seeing any elsewhere on Oahu even on our last trip a couple of years ago.