Cat lovers in New York city will soon have the perfect place to grab their coffee, as pet food maker Purina is opening a pop-up cat cafe at 168 Bowery on Thursday, and billing it as America’s first feline coffee shop.

Cat cafes are big in Japan where feline fanatics often have barriers to pet ownership because of building rules or just the small space where they live.

So instead of owning a feline of their own, animal lovers often go to cat cafes to sip their favorite beverage while rubbing paws with cats.

Purina’s cat cafe is set to open on Thursday and run through Sunday, the New York Post reported.wandering freely around the store.

The store will be stocked with cats, all available for adoption through the North Shore Animal League.

The company said it’ll also staff the store with cat experts to answer questions about feline health needs.

source: http://www.deccanchronicle.com / Deccan Chronicle / Home> Lifestyle? Pets-Environment / ANI / April 23rd, 2014

It used to be that museums were exclusively the purview of dinosaur bones and paintings of old rich dudes. Things have changed, however. Nowadays, there are museums for bad art, tap water and even dog collars. Well, you can add coffee machines to that list.

Introducing the Museum of Coffee Machines, located in Milan, Italy. The whole thing is run by Italian coffee machine manufacturer Gruppo Cimbali and features recreations of the kinds of coffee bars that existed through various decades of the 20th century. For caffeine junkies, this could really hit the spot.

So if you ever find yourself in Italy, forget all of those boring cathedrals and sumptuous meals. Go look at some espresso machines instead!

source: http://www.blog.cookingchanneltv.com / Cooking Chanel / Home> Devours the Blog / by Lawrence Bonk / March 29th, 2014

New exhibit displays artifacts and reproductions of a bygone era.

Although Freeman Store and Museum’s new exhibit, History of the Country Store, opened in early March, Historic Vienna Inc. chose a sunny and warm spring day for its opening reception on April 6. A steady stream of guests filtered through the store and museum examining the artifacts and reproductions on display in the store and upstairs in the museum and parlor. The Freeman Store is listed on the Virginia Landmarks Register and the National Register of Historic Places.

Abram Lydecker himself, who lives as an HVI historian and reenactor in his alternate ego, greeted guests and shared recollections of the birth of his store just before the Civil War broke out, during the war, and post-war business.

Abram and Susan Lydecker moved from New Jersey with their nine children in 1859, founding the community’s first general store. The store was used as a secession vote polling place on May 23, 1861. Vienna was one of the few precincts in Virginia to vote against secession.

“We just moved here from New Jersey and the village is very small,” said “Lydecker, referring to 1859. ”We don’t have many people living here yet but a lot of new agricultural technology was introduced here in Fairfax County.

“It’s nice for me and my family to have store next to the railroad so we can get goods and ship to people.”

Fairfax County welcomed Northerners as long as they didn’t take Abolitionist stands publicly, Lydecker said.

Ken Liu and his 11-year-old son Jason visited the Freeman Store and Museum during the reception. Jason is earning his Boy Scout Citizenship in the Nation badge and the Vienna family recognized Freeman Store’s historic designation. “We’re losing a lot of the original concepts,” said Jason. “Modern technology can help us do things faster but we shouldn’t forget the original ideas.”

Ken Liu said he was particularly struck by “Lydecker’s” conversations, especially when learning that the federal government suspended the Constitution when they took over the store during the war.

The exhibit, History of the Country Store, runs through the year. Counted among the displays are artifacts from the mid-19th century to the turn of the 20th century and reproductions that replicate goods, from feed and food to dry goods. The checkbook and satchel used by Leon Freeman, whose father Andersen Freeman married Abram Lydecker’s daughter, is displayed. Leon Freeman was the first president of the Vienna Bucket Brigade, the precursor to the Vienna Volunteer Fire Department.

“It’s fun to share the Freeman House as an open house,” said HVI Board member, Dave Shelby, who commented that HVI was pleased with the turnout. “It’s nice to show people what the building originally served as and how the world here used to be.”

Freeman Store and Museum is open Wednesday through Sunday, noon to 4p.m. There is no admission charge for exhibition. For information on the exhibit or to enquire about Historic Vienna, Inc., go to historicviennainc.org.

–Donna Manz

source: http://www.connectionnewspapers.com / The Connection / Home / Wednesday – April 09th, 2014