—First, it was Bourgeois Pig, in 1992. Then it was SOHO, then it became Euphoria. For the last four years, it's been the Living Room Hillcrest and it's usually so busy that its hard to get a table in the evenings. But at the end of August, the location at 1417 University went dark; owner Enchantra Phelps shut it down.

The coffeehouse closed due to an odd confluence of factors that in some ways make it a victim of its own success. Living Room Hillcrest always drew a full house-and it drew a full house of headaches for Phelps and her staff as well. While volume was always high, the legacy of some of the site's former locations earmarked the coffeehouse as a haven for an assortment of street-lifers that offered no end of problems for the staff and other patrons. Sandwiched between two bars and a porn bookstore, the front seating area was sometimes a magnet for the troubled and the intoxicated, and much effort and cost was expended trying to control hangers-on. Disputes with neighbors over parking and utility access and a maddening shortage of staff for every shift added up to more problems than Phelps was willing to endure over the life of a long lease.

The 20-something Phelps always wanted to run a caf?, and when the opportunity to acquire Living Room presented itself, she jumped at the chance. Enchantra Phelps has strong ideas about what a coffeehouse ought to be-a common ground place where people can socialize and organize to make their lives better while enjoying first-rate coffee and foods to fuel their desires, and a place that supports building the character of those who walk in the door. To that end, she encouraged debating societies, discussion groups, AA and many other gatherings that help people shape new directions. She encouraged endless art shows, and her house became known as a successful sales hall for paintings and installation art of all kinds.

In addition, Phelps hired some of the people who needed a job or a place to stay, and more than a few of them can credit work at the coffeehouse with changing their lives for the better and perhaps achieving a stability that they hadn't known before. Living Room also once served as a base of operations and reconstruction for a nearby business that makes custom wheelchairs and other equipment for the disabled. When that business was nearly destroyed by fire, the owners took over a table at the coffeehouse as a temporary office for several weeks while they arranged to keep their business going.

"It's a battle," said Phelps. "You can only charge so much and the costs keep going up, especially in this neighborhood, and it's not in my ethics to serve alcohol even though it would bring in a lot," she said, referring to high-end liquor that retails per glass for fancy profits and that many coffeehouses are now offering as a dynamic enhancement of the bottom line. "But I can't see this continuing on a long lease. You have to be a Starbucks to last for years at this scale," she said.

Living Room's patrons will miss the place; for some, it's a home away from home and the place where some of their best friendships were forged. "God, everybody I know I know from here," said Tony, a 20-something transplant who lives nearby. "This is the first place I went to when I moved to San Diego- first coffeehouse I been in. Lots of friends from here," he mused over a cigarette at one of the outdoor tables.

Enchantra Phelps, the vivacious, stunning, energetic woman with a devilish smile and infectious laugh will be fondly remembered and sorely missed by the patrons of her house in Hillcrest. For four years she created an island of community, refuge and companionship for her neighborhood one whose positive effects rippled out into the community and made it a more comfortable place to live. ESPRESSO wishes her and her staff well.