It's not just about the coffee

You could see the double takes one morning two weeks ago, commuters jamming on the brakes as they hoofed through Suburban Station, pulling up short: Was that Passero's Coffee? Again?

The counter had first opened in January 1991, back when the city's coffeescape was a lot sparser. Starbucks hadn't come to town yet (or even to California). La Colombe, which would become the city's premier roaster, wouldn't surface for four years.

It's not stretching it to note that, for a fair number of customers, Passero's was their first encounter with a novel brew called "specialty coffee," extracted from the cream of the coffee crop (Arabica beans); the un-Folger's.

It wasn't just the coffee, though. It was a first encounter with a new coffee culture, too - not the diner, not the coffeehouse, but a rambunctious, hustling crew of servers and baristas drawn from the ranks of actors, musicians, and University of the Arts students.

In other words, they weren't burned out. They weren't stuck in a dead-end job. They were caffeinated - and ready to rock. The music blaring from the 135-square-foot stand could be its own wake-up call.

Jeff Lincoln, who'd studied the coffeeways of the West Coast before moving east with his wife-to-be (Linda Lincoln, née Passero), had been told to fuggetabout it: "Philly's a blue-collar town," the locals warned. "Nobody's going to pay the big bucks for fancy gourmet coffee."

Well, they did, of course. And by the time Lincoln sold the business 16 years later (to the Juan Valdez chain of Colombian coffee shops), he'd opened four more locations, including one in the lobby of the Wanamaker building.

With the specialty coffee market crowding up, he'd started another business (Lincoln Lawn Frames) making patented, snap-together "For Sale" signs for the real estate trade. You can guess what happened to demand for those last year. But then a funny thing happened: The chain of Colombian shops pulled out of town.

So after almost four years, Jeff Lincoln has returned to his first love. Except this time around the city was awash in specialty coffee; even McDonald's had upgraded. Dunkin' Donuts, too, not to mention the entire galaxy of Starbucks and hipster indies.