By Aliah Fabros / LomaBeat.com / Dec. 7, 2022
A colossal canine skeleton hangs from the ceiling, its jaws cracked open in a toothy grin. This is definitely not Starbucks. Above the espresso machines, a surrealist melting clock ticks an hour ahead. By the entrance, a woman delicately plucks a harp.
Welcome to The Template coffee house, home to any local university student who owns a pair of low cut Doc Martens and Diesel the pitbull. Diesel lounges on the velvet couch that looks like it could have been snagged at any of the four antique stores that line this sunny strip of Ocean Beach.
“He hates socializing with other dogs,” his owner tells me as Diesel nuzzles his snout into my palm. The back of her t-shirt reads: she/her, he/him, they/them, human/being. I lean down and whisper into his floppy ears “I feel the same way about people.” Diesel doesn’t get the joke, but she does. We share a laugh.
Last summer I gave a Washington native a tour of O.B. He was unphased by the lack of parking and the cardboard stands selling evil eye jewelry at every street corner. What surprised him most were the shop doors. “Why are they all open?” he asked. “Don’t the entry ways get dirty?”
I cocked my head. “Dirty from what?”
“Rain, snow, wind –”
I held back a laugh. “Honey, there’s no weather in San Diego”.
Due to San Diego’s eternal sunshine, Template’s door remains wide open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. The aroma of sea spray and weed wafts into the cafe, mingling with the sweet scent of salted maple lattes. On the weekends a host of locals wander in for their daily dose of caffeine.
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Is this simply a coffee shop? At night I have seen groups of college kids hanging out listening to music.