Coffee place down

CityBeat columnist Andrew Gumbel enjoys spending time at The Talking Stick on Ocean Park Boulevard in lower Santa Monica. It's "pretty close to the perfect coffee shop, not only a place to drink and chat, but a real community hub where writers tap away at their computers for long hours every day, musicians perform at regular open mic sessions, mothers play with their toddlers in the cushion-filled back room, and artwork supplied by customers and friends of the owners, Rich and Sheri Braaksma, adorns the walls." That's soon to change. They have been told to quit the premises by June 1 to make way for a new catering company. Gumbel is distraught. "The Stick’s loyal customer base feels both devastated and strangely helpless...The Talking Stick is something special – a real piece of community on the rapidly gentrifying Westside – and it is extraordinarily frustrating that nothing can be done to save it."