RFP Staff
♦Tastebuds, a coffee spot and gathering place at 106 N. Main Street in the heart of downtown Salisbury, closed Monday. Its owner Kirk Knapp left a message on the Tastebuds facebook yesterday: “I am sorry, but Tastebuds is closed.” One of only two coffee shops in downtown Salisbury, Tastebuds featured a wide variety of coffees, teas, and deserts. On its walls hung the works of local aspiring artists. Over the years the Tastebuds became the unofficial headquarters of the “shop local” movement where local shopkeepers, students, the arts crowd, and city hall employees hung out to partake in coffee and the latest gossip. Mr. Knapp was known to share his opinions freely with customers.
Today only Koko Java, the “other” downtown coffee emporium, survives in downtown Salisbury. Starbucks, out in East Innes, does a brisk business and is the large favorite with city dwellers. Out in the Catawba College area Port City Java shut its doors in 2012 and has since been replaced by a Subway shop. Neighbors and customers of Tastebuds were unsure of the motives for the coffee spot’s closing, offering conjecture ranging from “Mr. Knapp’s personal reasons unrelated to the business” to slow business in that area of downtown Salisbury. Numerous businesses along Main Street permanently shuttered over the past two years, leaving behind vacant store fronts.
