It Was a Great Place to Play

It's now official--Ke Davi is no more.

I'm not sure exactly when the sign taped to the front door changed from "closed for remodeling" to "the landlord has changed the locks," but I read that sign this afternoon when I was in the area. Needless to say, I'm really sorry to see the place go.

It's hard to make a go of it when you're running an independent business like that; I'm not sure what the failure rate is of new food-and/or-drink establishments, but I bet it's a pretty high number. I'd hope that Plano, where there is a Starbucks on nearly every corner (and one intersection with three all by itself!), still has room for a few homegrown coffee shops.

This place definitely had its own style. It was owned by three Asian guys, and they featured the "boba tea" drinks so popular among Asian teens, but it never felt like a niche market; everyone was welcome. They had lots of games (chess, board games, etc.) available, as well as free computer terminals with Internet access. Oh yeah, and the guys were all very much into sports cars. We'd see one or two of them parked out front every time we were there.

But of course, the reason the place stood out for me is that they had room for live music, encouraged it, and were willing to take a chance on an unknown band like Team Demon/Dingus as well as my college groups. Granted, I'd met the owners when I sat in with 15th Street Jazz back in '03, and being a professor down the street must have helped, but it was still cool that we were able to play there pretty much whenever we wanted to. It was cool that we pretty much packed the place whenever we did, and I'm sorry that we weren't able to tell enough people about the place to keep it afloat.

As I said the other day, TD/D is looking for new places to play, but we'll always remember Ke Davi as the place we got started. I'm sorry it didn't last any longer, but I'm glad it was there for a while. And to Kenny, Danny and Vinh (now you know where the place's name came from), thanks and good luck with your future endeavors.

Weird news story of the day: This week's Sports Illustrated reports that, in Norway, the hand sign that we in Texas know as "Hook 'em Horns" is considered a salute to the devil. The day after the inauguration, a Norwegian newspaper ran a photo of presidential daughter Jenna Bush flashing the hook-em sign with the headline SHOCK GREETING FROM BUSH DAUGHTER. I wonder if UNT's "eagle talons" sign is offensive anywhere in the world...