Cumberland road ain’t so easy on the eyes, but Caffé Pronto will make you want to linger a bit on your way through Norridge. It’s a local joint and a great place to sit on a steaming Americano so hot the owner offered to water it down a bit. Lots of conversations. Lots of loud conversations. Lots of loud gossipy conversations too juicy to share on this blog but greatly appreciated while waiting on Henna to get her hair done.

Caffé Pronto is an Italian-American local joint with a good menu. The kind with a TV on that no one is watching but everyone hears.  And men sitting alone in booths occasionally joining in with the crazy loud gossip bantered back and forth like a racquet ball.

I wish I had gossip to share with the crowd. Scratch that. I wish I had gossip that people here would care about. Could use someone to play cards with too. But there is freedom from being unseen, sipping a too hot beverage and amazed at all the depravity festering in Norridge. As I typed that last sentence an unwell man leaned over me to say something in a voice too low to be understood; I nodded my head so that he would walk away. The man sitting opposite (also sipping at a too-hot beverage) witnessed the exchange and then the two of us talked. I finally had something to gossip about.