Coffee Shop

The homeless man accused in the March 31 rape of a South Philadelphia coffee-shop barista pleaded guilty Wednesday before a Philadelphia judge. Christopher Reeves, 32, pleaded guilty to rape, two counts of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, and a count of robbery before Common Pleas Court Judge William J. Mazzola in the sexual assault of a 29-year-old employee of the Bean Exchange Coffeehouse at Seventh and Bainbridge Streets in Bella Vista....

Clint Eastwood flinched first and settled a lawsuit yesterday with ex-live-in Sondra Locke minutes before a jury was to render a verdict in her favor. Neither side was talking how much, but her lawyer said it was a straight cash deal with no future considerations. Locke had sought $2.5 mil for Eastwood's alleged sabotaging of her directing career. A juror said damages were discussed from $15,000 to $10 mil. The lawsuit was over a movie deal he supposedly brokered for her at Warner Bros.

It's easy for a bibliophile, or anyone, to get lost in Port Richmond Books, where hardcovers and paperbacks are packed on shelves, stacked in aisles, tucked into corners near the piano, the couch, the basketball backboard, and the ping-pong net. Interested in Philadelphia noir? Here's David Goodis' Shoot the Piano Player . Contemporary Irish literature? There's a whole wall of that, too. In fact, the sprawling 6,000-square-foot store, housed in a former silent movie theater, holds more than 75,000 titles, give or take 10,000.

In an age of consolidation, when bigger is better and success depends on brand-name recognition, the manager of a small coffee shop is trying to defy the odds and thrive against the Goliath of coffee companies. Cafe Seattle, on Haddon Avenue a few hundred yards from Starbucks Coffee, is surviving in the shadow of one of the 1,500 franchises of the coffee giant and it has posted an increasing monthly profit since Starbucks opened in the spring of 1996. Described by patrons as a "place where everybody knows your name," like the TV bar on Cheers, Cafe Seattle has a diverse clientele that is lured as much by the coffee as by the comfortable decor, its managers say. Owner Jackie Straijer, 34, the mother of three boys and a Haddonfield resident, described her store and its patrons as a "big family," albeit an unusual one. This, Straijer said, is part of Seattle's appeal.

Stephen Rivel strolled into the all-night Dunkin' Donuts on Pine Road in Fox Chase for a cup of coffee and unwittingly interrupted three gunslinging robbers breaking into the safe, according to testimony yesterday in Municipal Court. When Rivel, 30, resisted being forced into a walk-in freezer with two doughnut shop workers and another customer, two gunmen fired shots into Rivel's leg and into the back of his head. "Timmy told the guy to get down on the floor and the guy wouldn't get down," one suspect, Theodore Burns, said in a statement to police that was read at yesterday's court hearing.

A Camden entrepreneur, whose coffee shop offered DNA tests as well as java, vowed Tuesday to fight a judge's ruling that he verbally agreed to settle a sexual harassment suit brought by six female employees. The $75,000 agreement - including $15,000 to be shared by the former employees - had been contested by Ronald Ford Jr., the owner of City Coffee, who refused to sign the settlement document this summer. "I refuse to be extorted," Ford said Tuesday, following an announcement of the settlement by the state Attorney General's Office Division on Civil Rights.

A pair of masked men armed with a stun gun ambushed two Bryn Mawr Starbucks employees early Friday as they prepared to open the coffee shop for the day, police said. The thieves wounded the workers and robbed the shop of cash. They entered the store, 766 Lancaster Ave., at 5:15 and forced the two to the floor behind the counter, said Lower Merion Police Superintendent Michael J. McGrath. The robbers took about $800 in bills and coins, he said. The men used the stun gun to shock the employees, who had superficial wounds, McGrath said.

Residents who fear that a coffee shop and newsstand at the Wallingford train station would increase traffic problems voiced their concerns during a public hearing before the Nether Providence Township Board of Commissioners on Thursday night. The board has been asked to amend the township zoning code to permit alternative uses for the SEPTA railroad station. Richard Vogel of Nether Providence has an agreement with SEPTA to renovate the Wallingford station and lease it for 20 years if the zoning change is approved, according to his attorney, Robert Surrick.

A Camden entrepreneur whose coffee shop offered DNA tests as well as java vowed Tuesday to fight a judge's ruling that he verbally agreed to settle a sexual harassment suit by six female employees. The $75,000 agreement - including $15,000 to be shared by the former employees - had been contested by Ronald Ford Jr., the owner of City Coffee, who refused to sign the settlement document this summer. "I refuse to be extorted," Ford said Tuesday, following an announcement of the settlement by the state Attorney General's Office Division on Civil Rights.

LAST MONTH, The Daily Meal proclaimed Ultimo Coffee "America's Best Coffee Shop. " To do so, the website had a panel of experts vote on "nearly 150 shops from coast to coast," it said, to seek out the best java, "food, atmosphere, customer service and the 'unique' factor. " Like some other top raters, Ultimo uses minimalist, beaker-looking, 3-cup Chemex pots to make morning batches. After 11 a.m., the Philly shops brew one cup at a time in ceramic Bee Drippers. Top-of-the-line La Marzocco machines create Ultimo's espresso and espresso drinks.

EVEN rock stars' moms bring snacks. At least Judy Moore , mom of Pink (a/k/a Doylestown's own Alecia Moore ) still does. Moore brought Rice Krispie treats to her daughter's Wells Fargo Center show Sunday, handing out her home-baked goodies to backstage revelers. Pink even shared the love, giving some to front-row fans. Pink had so much fun in her old stomping grounds, she's coming back to the Wells Fargo Center on Dec. 6. Tickets for that show go on sale at noon March 30 on comcasttix.com.

"IT LOOKS LIKE A truck hit it. " That's not something anyone wants to hear or say, especially at 9 o'clock on a Monday morning. But there was no more succinct way to put it: Peter Woolsey's brand-new stove, custom-built for him in California and shipped across the country to his Queen Village Bistrot La Minette, was unsalvageable. While Woolsey was unsure how it happened, he was clear on the implications. A section of his shiny new Montague that houses the manifold meant to feed gas to each of this gorgeously tuned machine's dozen high-Btu burners, was harshly dented.

Developer Ori Feibush half believed he might run into Melissa Ketunuti's killer on the street Wednesday afternoon. Feibush, who owns the OCF Coffee House at 18th and South streets, was one of just a few people who had seen the face of the man who, late Monday morning,  allegedly killed Ketunuti, a doctor at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia who lived around the corner from his shop. After days of poring through surveillance video from his coffee shop and other cameras he owns in the area, Feibush realized around 3 p.m. Wednesday that he had clear video of Jason Smith, a 36-year-old exterminator who was taken into custody for Ketunuti's murder at his Bucks County home Wednesday night.

It's easy for a bibliophile, or anyone, to get lost in Port Richmond Books, where hardcovers and paperbacks are packed on shelves, stacked in aisles, tucked into corners near the piano, the couch, the basketball backboard, and the ping-pong net. Interested in Philadelphia noir? Here's David Goodis' Shoot the Piano Player . Contemporary Irish literature? There's a whole wall of that, too. In fact, the sprawling 6,000-square-foot store, housed in a former silent movie theater, holds more than 75,000 titles, give or take 10,000.

Steven Cook and other partners in the doughnuts-and-fried-chicken icon Federal Donuts at 2nd Street below Federal, Pennsport, now have a second outlet at 16th and Sansom streets, Center City. Last week they opened a kosher eatery, Citron and Rose, on Montgomery Avenue in Merion Station. Cook, a Wharton grad and ex-investment banker, steps out of the kitchen to talk dough with us: Q: How'd you come up with the idea for Federal Donuts? A: A couple guys opened a coffee shop next to a restaurant we owned.

Once again, I awoke under the table. When you buy a gardener's cottage that sits deep in the woods on a purling creek, you don't fast-forward 24 years and think what that house would be like during a hurricane for the ages. Those shady trees become howling missiles. Small appliances jet by in that whitewater creek. So after the electricity went out the second time Monday - after the Scrabble by candlelight, the gas-cooked spaghetti alla carbonara and the growler of South Philly IPA - we staked places to sleep on the first floor as Sandy's unblinking eye headed our way. One son made his bunk in the den. The other flopped on a nearby couch.

Once again I awoke under the table. When you buy a gardener's cottage that sits deep in the woods on a purling creek, you don't fast-forward 24 years and think what that house would be like during a hurricane for the ages. Those shady trees become howling missiles. Small appliances jet by in that white-water creek. So after the electricity went out the second time Monday, after the Scrabble by candlelight and the growler of South Philly IPA, we staked places to sleep on the first floor as Sandy's unblinking eye headed our way. One son made his bunk in the den. The other flopped on a nearby couch.

Everybody used to call it The Strip, and it was an avenue worthy of the nickname. For decades, West Philadelphia's 52d Street was one of the city's premier boulevards, a regional retail magnet and an entertainment corridor with nightclubs, restaurants, and as many as five movie theaters. More recently, though, 52d Street has been, in the words of Mayor Nutter, "a hot mess. " Like so many of Philadelphia's neighborhood commercial districts, the 52d Street corridor was clobbered by the rise of malls and the overall decline of its surrounding residential neighborhoods.

The brew-haha over the cleaned-up, vacant lot next to the coffee shop owned by Point Breeze developer Ori Feibush may end this week. "I'm considering an option to lease the property, where my office will take over 100 percent liability of the lot and maintain it as public space," Feibush said Thursday. The lease would remain in effect until the Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority sells the lot, on 20th Street, near Federal. Feibush has made no bones about the fact that he's been trying to buy it. "We want to make sure there is an open bidding process and that when the property does go up for auction, language [in the agreement]