bullets and drugs: breakfast of champions!

This goes to prove that you can remodel a place, dress it up, put in snazzy, hip staff and a revamped menu, and it'll still be the same old coffee shop in a not-so-good neighborhood.

Jim's has renovated the shop at the corner of Hildebrand and San Pedro - it's swanky and retro-futuristic, well-lit, and they now sell beer and wine, Nadler's pastries, and Seattle's Best coffee. We had a short wait for our table, but we got seated at a window booth and started looking over the menu.

JR and I are gazing out the window, chatting, wondering why they're not open 24 hours like every other Jim's on earth when I notice this: Yes, that's a bullet hole in the window in our booth. Hmmm. Interesting. We're wondering things like, "Did it come from the inside or the outside?" (We have differing opinions - chime in if you know.)

Then, JR points out a "shady character" standing near the front door. Maybe a bum, because one of the exiting customers hands him some money. Our breakfast arrives, we're eating (delicious pecan pancakes for me) and JR points out that the guy is leaving. But he actually just walks out into the parking lot where some kind of beater chevy caprice with almost all the blue paint peeled off has pulled up. As we watch, the shady guy hands the guy in the car something. And then he looks around before taking money from the guy in the car. Then he turns around and walks away, crossing the street as the guy in the car (with CRAZY hair) drives off.

JR and I look at each other. "That was totally a drug deal!" "Yup."

So it just goes to show you... you can take the shady atmosphere out of the Jim's, but you can't take the Jim's out of the shady atmosphere.