Lincoln Avenue businesses Aviano Coffee and Locals Barbershop have closed. Aviano I really liked, Locals I was intensely ambivalent about.

Locals had writing on the wall — it was never busy. But there were usually a few people hanging out, which in my experience doesn’t bode well for a business. I went in twice for what turned out to be mediocre haircuts.

Aviano was a fun, pretty cafe staffed by a hardworking couple. When I lived on 10th and Logan I went in about once a week for about a year. They took their coffee seriously. Today I stopped by and read a handwritten note on the door saying they’re closed and to look for a new business venture (presumably a cafe) at 2nd Ave and St. Paul.

But Aviano was doomed, for it existed in the awful, monstrously fugly Beauvallon (“Blow-Villon”) building. Any business that sets up there is bound to fail — like the health club, sub shop and now restaurant “Nine-75“. Never set foot in Nine-75.

If you set up a business on Lincoln you’re rolling the dice. Broadway not so much, but Lincoln… think hard about locating a business on that road my friends.