[Recovery Pen chronicles the simple pleasures and gratuitous joys of living in New Orleans.]

With the foul breath of hurricane season prickling the backs of our necks, optimism is as elusive as dry land during a flood. Still, I am thrilled to report that this June 1st not only marks the official beginning of storm season, but also ushers in a major recovery benchmark: Fair Grinds Coffeehouse opening for business.

Even if you don't think you're familiar with Fair Grinds, you probably are: it's that place by the old Mid-City Whole Foods which has inspired both locals and tourists, old and young, hip and square, all to ask: "What the hell's going on over there? Are they open, or what?"

The Fair Grinds has earned its confusing reputation. Clearly coffee has been served at this establishment, as locals regularly gather around the benches out front and hold forth with the passion and loquacity that only caffeine inspires. The careful observer will also notice people carting laptops to and fro, as well as Friday night guitarists and Saturday morning AA members. Yet, when one tries to buy a cup, or god forbid, ask for some tea, she is rebuked.

But no more! Starting tomorrow, anyone with a few bucks can buy anything on the menu at the newly-renoved caffeine emporium. To celebrate this once-unimaginable event, I stopped by the other evening and chatted with owner Robert Thompson. I took notes while he painted the finishing touches on the outdoor trim, stopping numerous times to chat wiith the parade of friends and neighbors "just stopping by."

It's easy to be a journalist in post-Katrina New Orleans: start with the storm, and the story writes itself. This is how I learned that the Fair Grinds had been open for exactly three years when Katrina hit. Owners Robert and his wife Elizabeth hadn't planned any special celebration for the anniversary on August 29, 2005, and in the end, they marked that day like the rest of us: staring at our TVs in another city.

With the help of Big Al, proprietor of the nearby Asian Pacific Cafe, Robert first snuck back into the city during the Rita evacuation to check on his shop. Although they were spared much wind damage - Robert told me that he'd inflicted more damage by his panicked storm preparations - they got two feet of water inside. They hadn't been looted, but someone had broken in, took a single oat bar, and left a dollar for it on the counter. "I don't know why they didn't take all the food," Robert told me, annoyed: "it just rotted anyway."

He sprayed the fridges down with Microban, but without electricity, there wasn't much more he could do. He returned to Houston to continue waiting. A few weeks later, another neighbor informed him that the electricity was back, so he returned with Elizabeth. Sure enough, the neighbor had electricity at his house, but the Thompsons' house stayed dark for three more weeks.

The gas was on at the Fair Grinds, so they began offering hot showers to the few grateful souls who'd made it back to town. When their electricity came back, they gave out free ice as well. As Robert surveyed his inventory, he found a good supply of dry, vacuum-packed coffee. Using bottles of Red Cross water, they began brewing again.

When you're the only spot around with coffee, and free coffee at that, you make lots of new friends. Robert told me of the kids he met with the National Guard, the Verizon Wireless tech guys, and even the clean-up contractors with Philips-Jordan. FEMA even registered them as a grass-roots community center. I asked Robert what that meant, practically speaking. "They dropped off lots of pamphlets," he replied. "That's all we got from them."

With only a two, three month supply of coffee, Robert had to get resourceful if he were to continue his coffee relief. Fortunately, Dean's Beans, his pre-storm coffee vendor, donated a huge box of coffee when they learned what he was doing. Each one of the Dean's employees personally donated a five-pound bag to the cause. Orleans Coffee Exchange sold him coffee for cheap, and the locals who'd begun to trickle back donated coffee also. As the Red Cross got stingier with the water bottles, Robert worried that they'd have to start using city water. Just when they were about to run out, a truck from the Vernon Parish Miller brewery pulled up. They had a truck full of water, but no one would accept it because all their bottles were glass. Robert offered to take it off their hands, and the brewing continued.

Even though he's not a religious man, Robert had to admit that instances such as the water truck from Providence, er, Vernon Parish, gave him pause. Another time, when he and Elizabeth were too exhausted to clean out the shop in time for its scheduled gutting, a group of volunteers from Allegheny College showed up out of the blue. They boxed, marked, and organized the inventory in perfect order, according to Robert, doing better than their one remaining employee could have done. (That employee soon quit, after opening a box of french-press coffee makers filled with Katrina water. One whiff and he was out on the street, vomiting into the gutter.)

Because they didn't get help from the government or their insurance company, the Fair Grinds renovation process has been long and slow. Working as his own contractor, Robert is quick to point out that he's also "Katrina-damaged," which makes it hard to get going some days. Also, with free coffee comes free freeloaders, whose problems and dramas tend to get in the way of an efficient renovation. The Fair Grinds already had a reputation for attracting weirdos; post-Katrina's dearth of psychiatric resources only increased the population of mentally-ill free coffee drinkers.

Still, Robert doesn't like to send anyone away. Since all of the help he has gotten has been from individuals, he doesn't want to risk losing a possible friend. One depressive hanger-on donated $500 to the renovation effort. As well, a plasterer donated about $10,000 worth of work. The amazing lamp hanging over their counter was also donated by local junk artist Adam Dowis.

So the process has taken time. Although it was easy for Robert to ignore passers-by asking about a reopening date, when his construction helpers began getting on his case, he knew he had to reopen soon. And, bless the gods, that time has come. Not only is the shop itself beautifully renovated, but the upstairs will continue running as a meeting space for local nonprofits and other community organizations such as AA. A Mid-City collective plans to assist Robert in running the meeting area, under the new name Fair Space, to allow him to focus his efforts on running the shop. To be sure, there will still be plenty of challenges: finding local bakers to make pastries, training neophyte staff, and keeping the psychos at bay, but as the storm season approaches, New Orleanians can be proud of one more goal accomplished: another neighborhood home has relit its fires.