° Mondays: Open Air Night aka Poetic Expression (5-8 p.m.) - An all acoustic open mic. Bring your guitar, instruments, vocal cords, poetry or whatever and come join this free-flowing expression of creative energy! No cover if you bring a friend. No cover if you make a friend.
° Tuesdays: Jazz, Rhythm & Blues (5-8 p.m.) - Just what the doctor ordered to cure those ailments. Relax with your friends and a game of chess or swap stories with your neighbors (til 8 p.m.). Never a cover.
° Wednesday: Varies, but always something to do - Game night, discussion night, pick your own night, etc.
° Thursday: Dead Night and Open Drum Night (5-8 p.m.) - Hippy music galore (and hippy inspired) plus an open invitation to bring your drums for an energizing drum circle. No cover.
° Friday: Live Local Music (5-8 p.m.) - A showcase of local talent from Western North Carolina. Call if you would like to play. (music starts around 8 pm til ?) No cover. Tips for the musicians welcome.

Visions come to me on a daily basis. It’s too bad that my concrete manifestation looks like a Picasso piece in a blender. I’ve dreamed of an ideal garden where there were stone footpaths surrounded by pansies of every prism. Peppers, squash, and tomatoes would grow harmoniously, and bugs would be so taken aback by the landscape beauty that they would set their destructive sights on the neighbor’s yard.

The reality of it is quite 180. Tomatoes parasitically wrap around everything; stone footpaths are broken cinderblocks that jut out to steal a cut from an unwary foot; and the bugs (I believe) conspire with my cat to “fertilize” havoc.

My jealousy was compounded last week when I met Jason and Karin Kimenker, the proud owners of Soul Infusion Coffee House, a brand new establishment in Sylva that promotes the individual experience.

“Soul Infusion came about due to coincidence after coincidence, dream after dream,” said Jason Kimenker, an affable fellow whose comfortable talking about anything from the simple pleasures of food to the intricacies of the Mayan Calendar. “It’s not really important that Karin and I are doing this for ourselves as it is having something like this here for everyone.”

The front of the house looks like a rustic bed and breakfast. Two bookcases (with books of the brain elastic nature) beckon the time-killers. The sign on the bookcase waxes of the philosophical - “Share knowledge. Share experience. We are all teachers and students, together on this journey.” A chess set perches between the bookcases and two couches complement the area and tell the newcomer to stay for a spell or three. Beside the staircase is a large white advertisement sign that will soon be the beacon for folks looking for a cozy confine. In the middle of the sign is a series of spirals. The middle spiral is rainbow-colored, and it has five encircling “tributaries” that come off to the side. This is Karin’s design and it came to her in a dream.

“We had a five-pointed lotus on our computer icon,” said Karin. “I had a dream one night of the flower taking the shape of spirals. I suggested to Jason that ‘why don’t we do spirals for our logo?’”

“After we created the logo, we looked on the internet for Soul Infusion since we were thinking of using that as our name,” said Jason. “We found that it means that everything’s sacred ... all creatures have the ability to become soul-infused. Once you learn that, then everything becomes sacred. Even this towel I have in my hand.”

As the Kimenkers investigated further, they found all kinds of writings devoted to the mesh philosophy. One in particular echoed Karin’s vision.

“We came across a section on Transcendental Geometry,” said Jason. “One of the pictures was a mirror image of her spiral drawing.”

“Once I saw that,” said Karin, “(The idea for the drawing and name) clinched it for me ... and it also sort of freaked me out.”

The outside of Soul Infusion has a beckoning air to it - an old white farmhouse with a wide porch and a red roof. I walked around the back and went into the foyer. The first thing that caught my eye was the children’s corner - a wall dedicated to drawings by youthful hands and eyes. The next room had a dartboard and what the Kimenkers called a Wall of Teas. It looks like a glorified spice rack with over 35 flavors to choose from (the goal is to have a 100). Sniffing addicts can open each glass canister and smell the pungent aromas that will congregate inside the nostril. The bar area made me feel like I had downed a comfort meal of cinnamon green beans and garlic mashed potatoes. “Ken Burn’s Jazz” trickled out of the speakers as I took a seat at the black-covered bar. Decorative pieces of the Kimenkers’ lives adorn each area - old drums, pictures, rain sticks, tiny teapot ceramics, and even a video of the Mayans hung over a stoop. Foods of a healthy origin tattooed the menu. The smells were addictive.

All walks of life seem to stroll in here. A chirpy little girl was banging on one of the legions of hand drums. A good old boy with a blue mesh cap and tattered jeans dined on a light salad, and tie-died college girls seemed thrilled at the prospect of a tavern that urges soul-searching.

“Oh, we have a big mixture,” said Jason. “We had a group of little old ladies come in here yesterday who had a great time. We’re only six days old (as of June 7) and everybody in the community has come to check us out.” Each person gets a genuine Kimenker smile as well as information about anything that might be on the customer’s brain.

“Everybody’s my best friend,” said Jason. “I’d give away the food if we didn’t need it for overhead.” Jason grew up in New England and attended Boston University, where he met Karin. His first internship (as a radio announcer) was at WBOS 92.9 (soft rock) in Boston. He then took subsequent radio jobs, including the classic rock station WBCN. In 1991, the couple moved to Southern Florida so Jason could go to USF.

“I picked up a job at the USF Sundome ‘pushing boxes’, or what you would call a stagehand,” said Jason. “I got to work on every tour, from Melissa Etheridge and George Strait to Aerosmith and ZZ Top.”

This kind of work gave Jason an invaluable lesson on the innards of the music biz, the influences coming from every tangent. Karin, meanwhile, worked at a Day Treatment Program in Tampa. This exposure enabled both Jason and Karin to reciprocate with folks from all walks of life. When Jason graduated, he and a friend opened up a music store that soon transformed into a production company that made CDs and promoted concerts. Jason became the production director for shows that thrived on the visual. Multiple projection screens were built, with oil blobs and 16 mm projectors “paint brushing” the scenes. The atmosphere was simmering with carnival oddities, which included (among a plethora of things) stilted men ambling around balloons and jugglers. In the thick of it was the music. Jason and his partner would hire up to eight DJs and a live act to ensure that the crowd was jolted in a mental and physical way. The duo’s reputation became platinum, and corporate titans like Virgin Records and Sam Goody soon picked them up. Things were good.

“After four years, I had to step away,” said Jason. “It was too much fun. We were thinking of buying a house in Tampa, but we knew that if we did, we would have to be dedicated to staying there.”

Enter Western North Carolina. The Kimenkers went to visit some friends and the couple found the elusive harmony. “We fell in love with the culture, the people, and the outdoors. One of the clinchers for me was Sylva’s record store, In Your Ear Music. Here was an independent record store that was thriving in a little town.” The couple made the move in 1999, and Soul Infusion is a concrete image of dreams made. Jason’s love for music (he has his own studio as a “hobby” and he’s done video for Sylva’s own Smoky Mountain Drum’n Bass and the K-Bots) is evident in every feature of the teahouse. There’s music scheduled for each night of the week and it stresses that each person bring their unique creativity. Karin’s experience as a caterer (she was the head caterer at last year’s Tantra Music Festival, satisfying the palates of Bela Fleck, Run DMC, and Soundtribe Sector 9) has served the Kimenker’s new public well. More menu items are on the way and they should seduce the salivary glands.

The Kimenkers hope that the Soul Infusion outlook will reflect on each person who strolls through the door.

“The concept (of soul infusion) is when your personality and soul join,” said Jason. “My belief is that we are all part of one, a shared connection of love manifested by the way we put it out. Some call it karma, and it can be both positive and negative. Essentially, we have to look for inner truths before we can discover things on the outside.”

Each individual experience is unique, and the Kimenkers believe their little shop will help folks to realize their inner shine.

“We don’t want to define what a person will experience here, it’s an infusion of people’s ideas. Some people can call these gatherings church, or a sanctuary, or like in Europe, a salon. Call it whatever you want, as long as you can express love. This is a venue for it!”

My vision is a new one - sipping on a cold beer while beating on a dijembe drum. Beside me are a couple of smiley people who enjoy my off rhythm beats. Nothing is of consequence because every motion or utterance is important. My hosts are two people who insist that I try the vegetarian chili. I nod approval and continue to beat the drum. This is my vision, but it can be shared by anyone who can find that quaint little farmhouse on the side of N.C. 107. Bring your ideas and an empty belly. Nourishment will be the sage.

 

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The Smoky Mountain News