The colorful tiki mural on Velocity Cafe has been scrubbed clean to make room for Novel Cafe, now open in the Santa Monica space on Lincoln Blvd. Over-caffeinated laptop lingerers had a brief moment of distress last week when Novel stopped the presses on its flagship Pier Ave. storefront, founded by Richard Karno who later started the Groundworks chain. The move was forced at the hands of the eatery’s landlord, who would not renew the lease, according to Venice Paper via LAObserved. The space on Pacific Ave. is currently in the middle of its morph, with the full menu of Novel’s food coming next week and most of Velocity’s design and doodads staying put. Across the street, we see local favorite Poom Thai also giving a coat of paint to its facade. We can vouch for the superior Thai at Poom but have yet to eat at Novel, nonetheless we applaud any efforts to add sheen to Lincoln, the Bay Cities’ most prominent scar.
