BOHEMIA COMES TO CAPE GIRARDEAU: HIGHWATER CAFE, A HOME AWAY FROM HOME FOR ARTISTS

The Highwater Cafe is the Cape Girardeau version of a coffeehouse that could have been in Berkeley or Greenwich Village 25 years ago. Espresso-fueled conversations about art and the Big Picture and the littlest things drift from the tables, and the walls are cluttered with love-it-or-hate-it artwork. New bohemians dressed any way they like lounge about the couches, reading, talking or listening to the Beatles or Stanley Jordan or Mozart or African guitar music ... almost anything might pour from the sound system run by Chad Pennington.

After nearly two weeks in business, the Highwater Cafe is trying to live up to its ideal of being a "House of Knowledge" and, in the words of part-owner Joe Gardner, "a home away from home."

This home offers sandwiches, salads and pastries, a bountiful list of coffees, teas and espresso specialty drinks, and an easy atmosphere that invites people to play chess or Monopoly or cards. It opens at 10 a.m. seven days a week, and closes at 3 a.m.

All ages are welcome, but the minimum rises to 17 at midnight. Though the owners are all relatively young, they want older people to feel comfortable at the cafe. "We can't be a House of Knowledge without elderly people," Black said. "The older the wiser."

Monday and Tuesday nights, there's an open mike when anybody can do most anything they want. "I'm interested in people exposing themselves," principal owner Lawrence Engle said.

Wednesday nights are for poetry readings, and Sunday nights are reserved for whatever performance artists Cape Girardeau can muster.

Thursdays are reserved for art shows, which are scheduled to begin next month.

The cafe presents bands on Friday and Saturday nights. Characteristically, they are required to play only original music.

"I want to pressure everyone to be an artist," says part-owner Scott Black, a musician and writer who says he has papered one wall of his study with rejection slips.

The cafe came about because Engle was looking for a place to exhibit his artwork. When Gardner and Black joined in, the cafe itself became a work in progress.

"I believe this is art," the 22-year-old Engle says, looking about.

It took Engle, Gardner and Black half a year to get the cafe in shape to open, and they had help from some of their 21 part-time employees.

The cafe is at Broadway and Pacific. The building, built in 1803 and the former home of the Last Chance and Second Chance bars, was on the verge of condemnation when Engle bought it last February.

Engle has painted the tin ceiling purple. And Black has concocted a nonstop collage of '60s posters and cultural icons along the archway that separates the cafe's two rooms.

Pictures of Jim Morrison, Hunter S. Thompson, Marilyn Monroe, Jack Nicholson and Elvis Presley decorate the walls. There are tie-dye wall hangings and tablecloths. A "Love" mobile hangs above the bar.

Engle, who came to Cape Girardeau to attend college but didn't have enough money at the time, says the cafe should fill a void for students. "College students have absolutely nothing," he said. "This is something."

Black and Engle met by accident. They discovered they had mutual dreams of creating a place for artists and musicians to gather, exhibit their work and perform.

Engle sold his van to get enough money to finally open the place. Black thought Engle still might leave town until that happened. "Then I was here," he said.

Gardner, a 20-year-old cook and jack-of-all-trades, is primarily responsible for restoring the old building to coffeehouse code. He has known Engle for seven years, and was summoned from St. Louis.

His menu includes the suggestion: "Feel free to eat from each other's plates."

The cafe offers 17 flavored teas, four teas with caffeine, and more than 30 kinds of coffee. There are also 22 variations on the espresso menu.

The three partners think they have happened onto a concept that people are ready for. "Coffee is the drink of the '90s," says Engle. "...A lot of people are turning away from alcohol. Women would rather go to a place like this than a bar."

Engle's artwork is prominently displayed around the cafe, along with that of nine other artists. All the artwork is for sale.

Tuesday night's entertainment was Big George and the House Rockers, a rhythm and blues band from St. Louis.

At one table, David Rosener, a lawyer in a double-breasted suit, gulped espressos and blew smoke rings. He says the Highwater Cafe reminds him of similar establishments near his alma mater, the University of Chicago.

"There are a lot of open-minded people," he said.

"...As I look around I see a lot of potential."

At another table, Central High School students Danielle Cotner and Nicole Nobis played seven-card rummy while awaiting the appearance of the band.

Engle's grandmother, Elsie Cohen, his mother Cathy Engle and his 13-year-old sister Angela had come down from St. Louis to see the cafe.

"It's about time for the return of the coffeehouse," Cathy Engle said. "...It's a place people can go to share something besides alcohol; they can share intellectual concepts."

The three partners aren't worried about whether Cape Girardeau has the cultural base to support such a coffeehouse. "They come out of the woodwork," Black said. "It's just the same as a big city. They read books. It's like John Lennon's `Imagine.' You have to give people a chance."

Gardner agrees. "They've never had a place like this. People can come here and be different and they can be who they are."

Black envisions beginning an artists' co-op and writers guild "to see what other people are doing. Melville and Thoreau got together in Massachusetts. The same thing with Van Gogh and Gaugin. It helped them, that interaction of artists."

For all three, the cafe represents an opportunity to make a living on their own terms.

Engle, who says, "I don't care about the money that much," calls the cafe "more of a place for myself to hang out."

For Black, the cafe represents "an answer to my prayers." The 30-year-old guitar player and singer for the band Mersey Beat is an off-and-on English education major at Southeast Missouri State University.

"My dad hates me being a musician," he said. "The first time I ever showed him a poem he threw it away and said, `Do your homework.'"

But Black's parents were there Tuesday night from St. Louis and helped him make the investment in the cafe.

Engle, who says the name has nothing to do with the recent flood, said the cafe itself has been a "hands-on experience" for an artist.

"I got to create a whole place."