Roadside Attraction
Minnie the Mermaid knows how to draw a crowd. She is, without a doubt, the star of the sideshow that is CC's Corner: Coffee & Curios, but you would hardly call her a Darryl Hannah type. “She’s half monkey and half fish,” says Cameron Kallos, who owns and operates CCs with his wife, Savannah, in Richmond, Ont. “But, of course, if anyone asks,” he adds, slyly, “it’s 100 per cent mermaid.”
It’s not hard to see why the mummified creature is such a novelty in this small village west of Ottawa. She hangs, suspended in her own personalized display case in this quirky coffee shop; two spindly arms outstretched to the viewer and a fang-toothed jaw agape in a silent screech. Bits of horse hair, iguana and a cat skull complete the horrific ensemble — but it is far from the only freakish thing in this shop.
There is Ruprecht — a small wooden doll who shares Minnie’s case, hiding beneath her blackened tail. Of all the peculiar beings and strange artifacts lining the walls of CC's, it is this seemingly innocuous blue-and-white doll that might be the creepiest. But that’s probably because it’s haunted. “The guy who brought it to us just wanted to get rid of it,” Kallos says, “He told us we should just keep it behind the glass.”
Ruprecht, I am told, was hand-painted by a rather disturbed resident of the old asylum in Smiths Falls during an arts and crafts class. Since the doll arrived in the store, a few strange things have happened. For instance, there was the staff member who had a pen thrown at her when there was no one in the store. “It has no pupils,” Kallos points out, as if this were evidence enough. “That’s what makes it so sinister.” Nothing out of the ordinary has yet to befallen Kallos directly, but he seems hopeful. “We would love it if this place was haunted,” he says, and seems (mostly) serious. “We tried — we bought an Ouija board, but nothing really happened.”
In the midst of all the oddities at CC's, it’s easy to overlook what might be the biggest oddity of all — that it is, in fact, an espresso bar. Not what you would expect in the distinctly country town of Richmond, better known for its busy chip stand (which is owned by Savannah’s family) and its ceaseless lineup at the village’s one Tim Horton’s. No one, including Kallos, thought that espresso would fly. “We were a bit surprised," he says. "It’s not like we're on the main drag and there's no walk-by traffic.”
That CC's has become a destination for locals and out-of-towners alike goes to show that the allure of the strange is powerful (and pervasive) stuff. Not to mention the fact that Kallos is a stellar barista, even though he is far from the heartland of hipster coffee culture. There’s no drip to be had at CC's, only a perfectly pulled shot (or two) of espresso using beans from Little Victories roastery in Ottawa in whatever traditional form you like it — Americano, latte, cappuccino or “Cam’s choice,” which is often a cortado or simply a double espresso, a testament to his dry humour and commitment to what he believes in. “You don’t realize how good good coffee is until you just don’t have it,” Kallos says, who lived on Vancouver Island before moving to Ottawa. After passing by the Fernwood roastery everyday on his way to work his shift at the local hospital, Kallos became accustomed to a particularly high-quality product and preparation, one that Ottawa was slow to adopt. “When I moved here six years ago there just wasn’t anything. You would ask for a double espresso and get a 12-ounce cup filled with water.”
Nowadays, Kallos says the coffee culture has vastly improved, with several quality espresso bars in and around the city. “If those places had been here when I first moved here, we wouldn’t have opened this place.”
Four years later, Kallos says they have a steady stream of regulars who come for the curios and for the coffee. “We have our morning regulars and our evening regulars. We have our Wednesday regulars and little groups that like to come here; lots of downtown kids come here. We’ve had people come from Toronto who’ve put us on their list of places to visit.”
On one visit, a young family drove their children all the way from Kingston just to see Minnie. “She was on loan for a photo shoot that day,” Kallos says, “You should have seen how disappointed those kids were.” Kallos decided then and there that it would be the last time she left her case. Since then, more and more of the curios have become part of a permanent collection. “If someone really wants something, I can find someone to make it — but it won’t be cheap. I mean, Minnie is half monkey. Not exactly something that you can go pick up down the street.”
Kallos is still surprised by the people who keep coming back to CC's, more so than those who don’t. “We definitely still get people who come in here, do a 180 and walk right back out,” he laughs. “It’s a weird place and our weirdness is on the wall. But it’s a conversation, so if you come to a place and see UFOs, a skunk ape or old arcade games and a mermaid, chances are, if you like it, then you will have friends who will like it. And you’ll probably tell three of your friends that they have to go to this weird place, and of those friends maybe one or two will fall in love with it, right? That’s kind of what we hope for.”
In a way, some of CC's customers have become curios in their own right. “You should hear some of the conversations that happen here — it’s like something straight out of X-Files.”
Kallos talks about one regular who slid him a VHS tape across the counter. “Don’t show this to anyone,” he was warned, sternly. Kallos starts chuckling, remembering the kitschy quality of the footage. “It was your usual autopsy shit — you know, stuff you can see on YouTube.” He continues to come in, Kallos says, often dressed in wild outfits that seem to be inspired by Elton John. “It’s why I love it here,” he says, “It’s that small percentage of people who come here that are really like that. As soon as those people stop coming, we’re moving.”
Kallos doesn’t have much interest in being in the city. If anything, he says, he would probably go further out. “This would be a different place if it was in Hintonburg,” he says, “Not necessarily a bad place, just a different place. I prefer serving out here [where] I get away with goofy stuff.”
He and Savannah often talk about what that means for the future of CC's. “I want a wax museum of darker things,” Kallos says. “Cryptozoology has always been a huge thing for me.” After living in “the land of the Sasquatch” out west, Kallos would like to create a home for them here and construct a family of cryptids, complete with a bigfoot, a skunk ape and a yeti. “The idea being that you can get a coffee and walk through, pay five bucks and get a bad souvenir — that kind of thing.”
In the meantime, Kallos says he enjoys the UFO and alien fanaticism that is more popular in the Ottawa Valley. Even with a telling smirk firmly planted on his round and stubbled face, you get the sense that Kallos isn’t exactly a skeptic.
“I want to believe,” he says, with a hint of inflection. It’s a good thing that he does. Otherwise, Richmond wouldn’t have this quirky hub for the peculiar and for those with a penchant for the paranormal. That, and it would be bereft of a good espresso. “Richmond is a fantastic village,” he says. “It’s telling that a weird place like CC's can be sustained. It just goes to show that Richmond is a little weird, too.”
CC's Corner
6 Lennox St., Richmond, Ont.
facebook.com/ccscornercoffeeandcurios/ @ccscorner_coffee_curios
