The Original Diesel Love Story – Meeting Jennifer Park Prelude: My Diesel Love Story is impossible to put to words. Diesel has meant everything to me in my adult life. Not only has it been a dream job, it has brought me most of things that mean something to me. For example, I met my totally dreamy wife behind these counters …
A Good Luck Charm It was more than 20 years ago that I walked into my architectural firm in Davis Square to find Jen and Tucker in our conference room talking to Anne Daw. I was in a suit and tie, having come from a meeting with clients at the Bank of Boston. Everyone there …
Certain Something Special Had Begun May 28, 1999, the day before diesel first opened its doors was my 23rd birthday. I spent it helping to tackle the endless to-do list Tucker had carefully written out on a massive sheet of butcher paper. As I tightened bolts on the small round tables and arranged cups in …
Felicia’s Amazing Diesel Inspired Art
Stories With Data When I first walked into Diesel in 2006, y’all had already been going strong for years. When I moved to Somerville full-time in 2008, it became a refuge and has stayed one ever since, through life changes I couldn’t have even begun to imagine 12 or 13 years ago. I like telling …
I Would Walk With My People If I Could Find Them I’d like to say working at Diesel Cafe was my first real job out of college. That makes a tidier story. But it was actually my second. After undergrad, I’d just got out of a serious relationship (that neither of us really wanted to …
A Life Richer Shortly after moving to Somerville and leaving an unsatisfying job, I found myself working at Diesel. I immediately felt uplifted by the vibrancy and high energy at my new job, surrounded by multitalented, hilarious, & hardworking coworkers, and by the devoted customers who made Diesel a part of their everyday. Moving to …
A Somerville Success Story 20 years! I met you in 1999 when I was a member of the Somerville Board of Aldermen and you were pursuing your dream. You were both attending a Board meeting and an item on the agenda was a permit request related to your new business – The Diesel Cafe. I saw …
When Diesel was in Diapers I first started working at Diesel when she was still very much in diapers. She was such a well-loved baby even though she never slept through the night during her first few years. She subsisted on bagel pizzas and breast milk lattes and left a royal mess to be cleaned up by …
No Matter the Distance Hi, I love diesel! My friend Sam and I bonded at Diesel in college, and every time she visits, it’s our go to spot. We LOVED the photo booth and always used it as an excuse to goof off. It’s a special place in the story of our friendship, which I’m …
Fuel Diesel Cafe turns 20 in May. In September, my career in coffee will also turn that big 2-0. Being a fan of dates and anniversaries, holidays and the such, this isn’t really much of a revelation or surprise for me. It’s been on the brain for quite a while now, especially the past year. …
Pure Gratitude I’ve written so many editions of this love story, since I seem to have so many love stories to share. But the overarching similarity between them all is pure gratitude. I moved to Boston fresh out of college, and like so many who wandered through, I had no idea what I wanted to …
Self-Love self-love noun \ ˌself-ˈləv \ Definition of self-love : love of self: such as a : an appreciation of one’s own worth or virtue Everything typed above this line was copy and pasted from Merriam-Webster, the definition of self-love I mean. I would correctly cite it if I could. I think that’s a skill …
More Than Just One Story I don’t really know where to begin for my diesel love story. I guess it’s because it’s way more than just one story. There’s a Diesel love story for Diesel as an employer. I never imagined I would work there and start living one of those queer lives I used …
Royal Treatment These poems, as I see them, reflect conditions that prevail at the Diesel Cafe. The “Beautiful Sandwich” is a delight that calls forth how well Diesel patrons are treated day-by-day. Even the most ordinary order gets royal treatment. “When Grace at the Bliss Cafe Calls” is much more serious and describes a grief …
Group of Weirdos Hello Diesel and happy 20th birthday! I vividly remember when Diesel opened when I was a teenager and friends going to check it out on the weekends. I thought what is this place? I eventually became a customer, had a art show there then a few years later became a employee. To …
Coming of Age at Diesel In 2002, I moved to Boston (nearly sight unseen) with two friends from college (College of William and Mary in Virginia). We had no idea how to exist in the world, but found Diesel as a haven. Me (a fledgling gay man) and another roommate (a queer woman) spent hours …
So Many Friends and Loves
Thanks a Latte In September 1999 one of my best friends (Mónica) and I moved to Somerville. We were fresh out of undergrad and trying to figure out our way in Boston. We were overwhelmed, optimistic, naive, excited, and felt the blessing and curse of new adulthood on our shoulders. We walked into Davis Square …
Really Big Important Things I started working at Diesel in the Spring of 2013. I had packed one suitcase and taken a train from Rochester to Boston, one way. I had recently broken up with my boyfriend in NY, and what had at first been amicable turned violent. I was left broken, scared, lost and …
Return to Oz I once had a Couchsurfer named Candy Royalle. We connected immediately over our partly shaved heads and over poetry. She was going to stay 3 days and she ended up staying a couple of weeks. On her way out of Boston, and back to Australia, she asked where she might stop for …
So, So Happy EDITOR’S NOTE: All 4 members of the Branch-Tomsho family wrote Diesel Love Stories. Read them all!
Everything Happens at Diesel My life is crowded with incident so there is nothing I cherish more than sitting down at a table with a book and my favorite tea right in the window of Diesel. Diesel is like my living room. Diesel is like my living room. Everything under the sun has happened there. …
My Life is a Diesel Love Story Writing my wedding vows was easier than writing my Diesel Love story. Vows are just for one person. But this, writing about MY DIESEL LOVE STORY, is just so big and so vast and so so so incredibly deep. There is not a place I turn in my life that the four walls …
Want to Get Some Coffee Sometime? 15 years ago I was working at Diesel Cafe and had noticed this cutie who would come in to the cafe some times. One night they came in and all night I tried to get the courage to ask them out. When they left the cafe before I made …
Great Friendships Forged (Get it?) i met my best friend because of diesel cafe. despite the fact that we both had gone to the same university, hung around the same kind of academic circles and friend groups, and had a lot of the same interests, we didn’t formally meet until we were both working behind …
57 Years of Memories The hardest part for me about writing this Diesel Love Story is that there isn’t necessarily a story: stories have beginnings, middles, and ends. I’m an English teacher now, I get to know that. And my story, of the real, meaningful, lasting friendships that came from working at Diesel Cafe only has a …
A Magical, Percussive Dance Dear Diesel, It’s hard to overstate the importance this place has had in my life. There isn’t a whole lot that you weren’t a part of in some way or another. I started working at Diesel during my last year of college when I was 23. I worked for about six …
Love From A Distance My best friend and I grew up in Niagara Falls, NY. While I have stayed in the greater Buffalo area, just after college, John made the Boston area his home. He found his amazing soulmate there, they settled in Somerville near Davis Square. As we visited, we watched the transformation of …
Perseverance My Diesel love story almost didn’t exist. Back in 2007 I was 21 years old and dreaming of opening my own café. Thing was that I had never worked in one and didn’t know the first thing about it (or even if I really liked it), so I figured I’d better work in one …
Magic happens at the Diesel, all the time. The book of love is long and boring And written very long ago It’s full of flowers and heart-shaped boxes And things we’re all too young to know” – “The Book of Love”, by The Magnetic Fields “I could write a whole book of love centered at …
Back For More… I’m one of the “back for more” employees! Worked there in 2000? 2001? Moved away and then when I moved back and went to grad school (with Russo!) worked there again around 2005-2006? Those shifts at Diesel were not only a needed antidote to the stress of thesis-writing and social work internships, …
Friendship Bracelets When I pretended to leave last spring, I thought that it was Diesel and my time committed to its service that contributed to my burnout—in actuality it was the very essence that was keeping me (and has kept me) spiritually alive through this MA experience— I don’t think it’s a secret that my …
Mochas Were My Gateway Drug My Diesel love story starts with an important fact: I didn’t drink coffee before I entered Diesel’s doors in 2010. I only got mochas made of mostly milk for the first five years I was a customer, when I opened an office for my health coaching practice across the street …
Diesel has piece of my heart…. after moving cross country to Boston I quickly learned about Diesel Cafe. I would spend hours there working on lesson plans, playing pool with coworkers and crushing on the adorable staff. The summer before starting graduate school I finally built up the courage to apply to work at Diesel. …
Diesel Kids 1999 – 2003 I am forever thankful for Diesel. Being one of only a handful of openly gay teens at Somerville High School from 1999-2003 was not easy. Having a place to go and escape where we could be ourselves and be accepted saved us. It was our second home. Pretty much every …
A Refuge and a Home I’ve started so many of these notes now, but I don’t know how to sum up my “Diesel love story” besides… Diesel is my family. From pilgrimages in college, to visits back now, Diesel has always been a refuge and a home to me. So much of who I am, …
The Place With the Motorcycle The first time I visited Diesel Cafe, I was a freshman at Emerson College. It was the fall of 2010, and I was only eighteen. I barely passed for an adult: “artsy” glasses, long sleeve shirt under a graphic tee, black skinny jeans. Still a hint of baby face. I …
Matchmaker First of all – Congrats on 20 years! I think you have done an amazing job creating a coffee spot for all. As, a coffee lover, I have introduced many a friend to your very fine establishment. My story is not really totally my story but my perspective of the situation is what makes me write …
Diesel Is My Family As I sat down to write this love letter to Diesel, I became overwhelmed with sentiment. Though, short and sweet, it’s all pretty simple: Diesel is my family. I took a job there back in my mid-20s, thinking it would be a fun place to work with some cool queer kids …
Dear Friday Night Shift, “Littles in the middle.” Xo Nickels
Story Time I Guess When I moved to Massachusetts when I was 7 (15 years ago, OMG), my parents would often come to Diesel after work on Tuesdays, and hang out with their big group of friends that always showed up. It would give me time to play pool, eat one of your plate sized …
Diesel Love Stories 