Osama’s Coffee Zone (1998)
Stephen Bybee
Columbia, MO
March, 1998
This photograph was taken on the same snowy evening as the image of north Tenth Street that I posted here last week. On Sunday, March 8, 1998, Columbia experienced a particularly wet and heavy snowfall. I left the house with two film cameras and several rolls of black and white film, driving slowly around downtown to photograph Columbia’s buildings and street scenes in the snow. At the time, Osama’s Coffee Zone was in the building next to The Heidelberg. Besides their fantastic Rocket Fuel coffee, delicious Mediterranean fare, and every variety of Marlboro you could ever need, Osama’s also had a wonderful patio (if memory serves), and was a fantastic location for those of us in the Fine Arts department. When the disastrous fire leveled The Heidelberg in 2003, the building housing Osama’s was heavily damaged. Osama’s eventually moved several blocks north and rebranded itself as Coffee Zone. Since this photo was taken, The Heidelberg restaurant was destroyed by fire and then successfully rebuilt, the space once occupied by Coffee Zone on North Ninth is now occupied by Sage, and the Rocket Fuel coffee once served in Osama’s Coffee Zone on South Ninth is now on tap at Sage…the name and location have changed several times, but this wonderful cup of coffee remains a timeless feature of Columbia’s Ninth Street.