In April 2009, a cryptic sign appeared in the window of a run-down building on the 43rd block of Telegraph Avenue. Black print on white paper shaped a question mark, whose dot was a hand-drawn coffee mug. People slowed as they walked past, seeming to wonder: Is Oakland’s Temescal neighborhood finally getting a coffee shop?

T.S. Eliot once wrote, “I have measured out my life with coffee spoons.”

His poem, “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” flows as a stream of consciousness. Yet, for most Glenviewers who stumble into the local coffeehouse every morning, caffeine is what they seek to quiet those inner monologues of dreamland.