Java Jive
Hannibal boasts the first coffee shop west of the Mississippi River. I didn't verify that info, I just read the sign in the window. Java Jive is located on Main Street in the Andrus Joseph Building built in 1902. You can find musicians playing the piano in the back or strumming a guitar out front. The coffee shop started as a woman's clothing store and then turned into Hannibal Mercantile for the next forty years.
After its last identity crisis as a hardware store, it became what it was always meant to be: a coffee shop. Out of the three, I'm loving the coffee shop transformation. Not that I don't enjoy buying women's clothing or a rake to clean up my leaf littered yard, but Java Jive makes the most wonderful frozen milky way (chocolate/caramel) coffee drink in the world.
I wish I could say I spent hours writing in this establishment, but I do most of my writing at home on a worn, leather couch. Java Jive is a reward I give myself on the weekends after a long week of writing or editing or to get away from my kids, but they usually end up following me there, because I raised them right and they love coffee drinks too.
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| "Coffee is an experience that chalk cannot convey." |
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| The menu board |
In keeping with our challenge letter "J" today, I'm including Hannibal's Old Jail House located just a few blocks from Java Jive. By the way, my oldest teenage son took this photo yesterday. He has a way cooler phone than I do. He's an amazing photographer and artist, and I occasionally buy him coffee because he's awesome and takes photos for me.
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| The "Old Jail" built in 1878 |
Where do you like to write? Do you ever use your kids to your advantage? Bribe them by buying them coffee drinks or video games? (Asking for a friend. Not that I ever would;-)
I love the smell of a good coffeehouse. My daughter works at a Michigan based coffee shop and often brings me home treats. I like the name Java Jive.
ReplyDeleteBushman
2015 A to Z Challenge Ambassador
@jwb81074
Nice! I should suggest one of my boys work at Java Jive.
DeleteI like the name Java Jive. Has a nice ring to it :)
ReplyDeleteIt does, doesn't it?!
DeleteI would never bribe my child with promise of coffee. Fruit smoothies are another matter but I'm only doing it for their health. I write mostly at home but I do love to write in the coffee shop now and then.
ReplyDeleteThey make great smoothies too. My oldest is pretty health conscious. He works out like three times a day!
DeleteAccording to Google Maps, Java Jive is about 200 meters from the edge of the Mississippi. Thirty seconds of research uncovered that Riverside Grind in Guttenberg, IA is less than 50 meters from the water's edge.
ReplyDeleteFalse advertising, Java Jive. For shame. Still, looks like a nice place.
And for a second I thought you were going to say your oldest son WAS IN the prison.
Oldest son? Jail? Never. Youngest son? Someday, possibly soon. Driving with my 15yo, he rolls down the window and yells to random people, "Help, she's not my mom." That pretty much sums it up.
DeleteI love a good coffee shop. Java Jive sounds like a place I'd like to go to get coffee and hangout for a while. I started drinking coffee when I was like eight or nine. ;)
ReplyDeleteWOW! That is young:) I've always loved the smell of coffee. I started drinking it as an adult after I had kids. :)
DeleteI love a good coffee shop. Java Jive sounds like a place I'd like to go to get coffee and hangout for a while. I started drinking coffee when I was like eight or nine. ;)
ReplyDeleteI love coffee :-)
ReplyDeleteMe too:)
DeleteJava Jive sounds awesome!! I usually write at my desk at home (or laying on my bed depending on the laziness level of the day), but I do enjoy occasionally getting out and discovering new coffee shops to write at.
ReplyDeleteI usually spy on people at coffee shops and take notes.
Deletefrozen milky way (chocolate/caramel) coffee - sounds scrumptious
ReplyDeleteThat's a cool old jail.
ReplyDeleteI like the PacMan theme of the coffee shop's sign.
Love the picture of that jail. It looks so quaint compared to the modern, sterile-walled ones today. I think there should be signs telling us how many miles it is to the next coffee shop, just as there are for gas stations and restaurants. Use those kids, I say.
ReplyDeleteI'm a fellow couch writer!!! I love to meet other couch writers. I like the idea of writing in one of those independent coffee shops, but I always feel like people are watching me, reading what I'm writing over my shoulder. Plus I get WAY too easily distracted by people watching. My new writing area will be the sunroom in our new house...I'm looking for a comfy chair and ottoman and I'll write while surrounded by windows and the great outdoors!
ReplyDeleteI have a wonderful room with a south western exposure. I grow violets and blooming things in the windows. It has a tacky old computer desk that I often try to throw away but never quite get to the curb, my printer, bookshelves, and is isolated from the noise in the other parts of the house. It is referred to as Mom's nest by the locals.
ReplyDeleteI write on my bed... And I hate coffee *ducks*
ReplyDeleteJail is my J word, too. Although, interpreted slightly differently.
I'm not a coffee-drinker, but I have written in Starbucks before (while drinking a steamer, which was delicious!). And I even wrote on napkins J.K. Rowling-style while there because I had some time away from my kiddos and hadn't brought paper or anything with me! It was definitely awesome. :-p
ReplyDeleteAt first I thought that photo of the jail was a painting! It looks very old time. I'm a tea drinker instead of coffee, but I certainly might try the chicken noodle.
ReplyDeleteHello there.
ReplyDeleteI am neither a writer nor parent, but I do like good coffee every now and then. Chicken noodle soup is really good on those days when one is feeling down in the dumps. The photos are great!
Thanks for sharing.
Entrepreneurial Goddess
Your son took a fantastic photo! Hole in the wall coffee houses are gems. Places you can go to feel like the world just might be a better place and then you get to top off that feeling with a frozen milky way ;)
ReplyDeleteYou can find me here:
ClarabelleRant
Awesome.
ReplyDeleteAnd now I want coffee.
Heather