>>496
It does feel like that. I was wandering a part of the city I’ve been through many times before and I must have gone down a different street than usual. One of the signs stood out to me so I went down its alleyway. The window had little glass chalk drawings on it that seemed to be from customers and there was paraphernalia visible through the window that interested me. I look at their Twitter feed and see photographs of hobby things that I’m into. Must be a customer that came in or a flavour of the month thing, I think.
So I go back during opening hours with a hobby thing of my own. I see people inside but the sign says “closed”. I go up to the door and a woman comes out.
>”Are you open?”
>”No, we’re closed.”
>”Oh, really? Your Twitter feed said you were open though.”
>”Well, see, we’re about <hobby1>, <hobby2>, and so on... it’s not really for the public. So unless you’re into-“
>”This?”
>unzip a little of the bag I’m carrying, showing hobby item inside
>she visibly relaxes
>”Oh, good. In that case, come in. You should have called! Who introduced you?”
>”Oh no, I was just walking past and thought it looked like my kinda place.”
It was my kinda place. The food was absolutely delicious (they smoked their own cheese), they served great whiskey, I chatted with the owners about the hobby, and later other people came in. The whole thing basically seemed to be run by the owners out of their first floor because they wanted to, like they just couldn’t be bothered with society and decided to figure out this way of doing things. As I was leaving the woman owner gave me the place’s card with her mobile number handwritten on the top and told me to call ahead next time I wanted to come back so they could make sure there was enough room and get the place ready if needed.