NEED TO SATISFY MY HABIT ELSEWHERE >>>

It's not that I've been in denial, as they say in rehab. Denial is not my strong suit. For years I acknowledged my addiction with a blithe one-line toast: "Ah, coffee, the last drug of my generation."

Technically, of course, it isn't the last drug. Or even the last legal drug. But alcohol has been limited to non-pregnant, non-driving people in non-liver-and-life-destroying quantities.

Smoking isn't banned but banished beyond doorways where a community of folks look like they're having much too much fun.

Coffee, on the other hand, is culturally approved, universally accepted, socially enabled, and financially promoted. There's a fix on every corner.

Except in Tacoma's Theater District this morning.

The Café at 744 Market Street, or whatever it's being called at this moment, is dark with a "Coming Soon" sign announcing the future arrival of Café Messina. Messina's Web site announces an opening date of March 15.