On a recent Monday afternoon, Francis and Louis Graber dished out slices of their 65th wedding anniversary cake to their friends, Bert and Jarene Lundh, owners of the Porcelain Gallery. They also offered slices to all the other customers in the Tully’s in the Magnolia Village.
Such is a typical gesture from the group, which has made it a ritual to gather at the Tully’s most mornings and many afternoons in recent years.
Francis Graber said she has also made it a point to come to the coffee shop every Friday morning with her friends from the Our Lady of Fatima Catholic Church.
You see, Francis and Louis are relatively new to Magnolia. They have only lived there for 13 years. The Tully’s has been their place to make friends and break into the close-knit community.
“I remember two men were sitting at a table and I asked them if they minded if I joined them,” Francis Graber said of her introduction to the Tully’s culture. “That group turned into about 14 people.”
Now, the group, ranging between eight and 14 in number, meet just about every afternoon.
The story of the Grabers is not uncommon. For years the Tully’s in Magnolia at 33rd and West McGraw has been a hangout for people who live in the village and want to meet to talk, gossip, catch up on village news, and maybe even flirt.
However those good times are about to change. After 15 years, the bell is tolling for this Magnolia Tully’s. It is closing on July 24. An Uptown Espresso will take its place.
On the coffee shop’s wall are a series of posters where customers have written comments and “thank yous,” describing what Tully’s has meant to them and how important the location was to the community. From offering treats at Halloween to creating a warm environment for friends, Tully’s will be missed.
There has been much gossip and speculation from customers as to why the Magnolia Tully’s is closing, but no one, outside the main office, appears to know for sure the reasons why. The economy, most likely, is playing a large role since many other businesses in the Magnolia area have also closed over the last two years.
Tully’s philosophy has always been to hire staff from within a neighborhood who have a personal link to their community. The company’s focus has been to adhere to a rigorous standard of ethics and to ensure the best possible customer service. Many previous staff members have gone on to start their own successful businesses, helped in large part by the training they learned while working at Tully’s.
For the Grabers and the Lundhs, the reasons are simpler than all that. They like the people and they like the coffee. This Tully’s is where Magnolia’s coffee aficionado's have been meeting, some since the opening of the shop. Many friends and neighbors who have moved away to other parts of the country have now returned to the village to live, work, raise their families and, again, frequent this Tully’s.
So why do these village people keep frequenting this popular hangout? Many people feel that even though they live in a world of instant communication it is communication that has become less personal or truly interactive via emails, Facebook, and blogs (when have any of us recently received a hand written letter or even a short note), a world where people seem to be reporting increased feelings of isolation, loneliness, and depression.
So, yes, I think people will continue to meet at neighborhood hang-outs such as the Magnolia Tully’s so that they can see friendly familiar faces, feel connected as they look into each other’s eyes, share laughs, hugs and friendly banter, and feel a sense of continuity in a rapidly changing impersonal world.
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