A good few weeks ago I was in Dirty Red, and the piano exit section of “Layla” was playing and it was quiet, and it made me think of Casino, when Robert De Niro’s character is talking about Las Vegas changing and becoming something that he sees as, ultimately, tacky. He has a point, but perhaps he was mourning more his getting a lot out of what it was and expressing frustration at being unable to, than anything else. Admittedly, whilst he does express dismay, he does seem to express some appreciation for his lot in life after his exit from Las Vegas. It’s a scene that could be allegorical for Hollywood changing, and probably the whole film can be seen that way, but I digress.

Later on I was reminded that the song was used in Goodfellas and not Casino, but there was still something fitting to me, as things change. Dirty Red was quiet when I was there, and it felt very unusually so. It felt as though it should’ve been much busier. The weather was great, people were on break, the actual holiday periods were coming close. But it was quiet, and it wasn’t the first time it had been quiet whilst I was there in the morning, either.

Over the prior weeks it seemed to grow increasingly quiet, as though a lot of what was drawing people in was not working as well as it had, and I didn’t know how to feel about that. Things change, and Dirty Red is just another café at the end of the day. It is, however, my café. Like Glebe Street Deli, Little Ethel’s, Rusty Rabbit in Burwood, and Four Ate Five before it, this is where I like to go and eat. The staff know me, I know the staff, and for me it’s just a pleasant place to be. But things change, and it seems business has picked up again, but who knows how long it’ll be for.

Eventually I’ll have to find another regular. There is, of course, a chance I won’t, but it’s good to explore what’s around, and maybe I’ll end up working elsewhere, or move somewhere that makes going to Dirty Red highly impractical. There’s danger in the familiar, and there’s danger in the new, and what I really want is a sense of community; A sense of place that I don’t have to let go of because of the impermanence of affordability.

Things change, and Dirty Red might just close sooner than I’d like. Maybe it won’t, but hearing the piano exit section of “Layla”, and seeing how the space was at the time felt concerning to me. The place survived losing two awesome staff well enough, but this didn’t feel right, and sometimes change, whilst inevitable, takes more than it gives.