Overdrive TV

Starbucks failed in Australia. Nobody really knows why. They say Starbucks works elsewhere because it is ‘The Third Place”; the first being your home and the second being your work. Obviously America has become a nation of friendless dullards judging by how popular Starbucks is over there.

Personally, my third place is where I’d find my friends and family. I can count at least 10 places I’d rather spend my time than a Starbucks. Fortunately my family is in the restaurant business so at least one of those places includes food and beer. But we all have a place like that, don’t we?

Recently, a man called Ben Ali passed away. Ben opened an eatery called Ben’s Chilli Bowl back in the ‘60s in Washington, DC. Over the years his eatery became an institution; a bastion of non-racialness in a stormy period in the USA’s history. The eatery’s 50th anniversary was a who’s who of politicians, businessmen and celebrities who’d been through the best and worst of times, all the while eating at Ben’s.

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