Local Durham, local style

Tuesday, March 12, 2024

On my lunch break in Durham today, I went to the post office to mail our tax info to the accountant, then walked to a small coffee shop I’ve not yet visited, EverLou. The coffee was good, and served in a proper mug. I enjoyed it at an outdoor table, rereading Twenty Bits I Learned About Making Fonts Book by designer Dan Cederholm.

I like Dan’s style, so I subscribed to his new Simple Type Club. As part of that, I got a bundle of his typefaces, and Free Lunch is perfect for a new logomark for The Long Table, that people+meal+conversation project that has been dormant but not forgotten. I recently found new inspiration for the project, from conversations with my career coach and also that pile of lumber out back (milled from white oak trees in 2019).

Coffee and reading finished, I stopped into Chibanga’s Neighborhood Market, a bodega next to Everlou. Paying for my sandwich, I asked about the store’s name. Everything in Durham is named bull this, bull that, owner Marcus Morrow told me. So he and his partner named the store for matador Ricardo Chibanga (yes,a bullfighter).

Then I was back to the office and more work.