Update 12/08: Hopscotch has closed, this former coffee shop now houses a sustainable living knick-knack store. While I was tied up with job and out-of-town stuff, my usual East Village neighborhood coffee haunt, ALT.coffee, shuttered forever to re-open at some point as Hopscotch, a “family-friendly” establishment.

I was never quite comfortable hanging out at ALT, and there were the usual reasons–the urine smell emanating from the black bathroom, with its blindly staring stack of busted monitors, the too-loud music, and the decaying furniture. I couldn’t help but cringe as I’d descend into a graying assprint on some piece of moldering, crumb-studded upholstery, downwind from a 9-11 conspiracy rant. But really, the place was loaded with one simple, bothersome association. Stepping into this vestige of dirty old East Village reminded me of my high-school self, picturing myself older and cooler in this very spot, sipping coffee and doing whatever artistic people do.

For such a huge nerd, I had a profound lack of goals as a teenager.

I walked by this weekend, and Hopscotch wasn’t open yet. Even though my vague high school dreams of artistic coolness were never fulfilled and my inner yuppie seems to mind dirt and smells, I miss the old ALT. It served as my refuge from roommate weirdness, my back-up when neighbors put the smackdown on my wireless internet pilfering, and a destination for pretty decent cappuccinos to take on my escapes into the park. I’m on the lookout for a new coffee spot, but I know it won’t be quite the same.