Places We Can't Understand: Happily Ever After, Market Street's Nerd-Baiting Dessert Café

Located in the heart of Market Street's brodouche strip, the frozen yogurt/dessert shop Happily Ever After is an absolute mystery. This pop culture-themed café, with walls adorned with art inspired by Star Wars, Pixar films, and other enduring nerd properties that give off a curated dorm aesthetic, seems completely out of place with its dubious surroundings. (An area where I, a resident of 2016, actually witnessed a drunk Axe Body Sprayed stereotype refer to a passing stranger with glasses as a "fucking four-eyed dork," as if the Geek hadn't inherited the Earth as soon as Steve Jobs set up in a California garage). Although it is located in a heavy tourist area and contains prices that are utterly reasonable given its real estate, the store's customer base seems largely populated by locals who have popped by for a quick macaroon or bubble tea following a Brave New Worlds shopping spree. The comics/anime/movie obsessive set need their own Cheers -- albeit one that serves Butterbeer instead of the alcoholic variety -- as much as you do, so the shop's existence is understandable. Yet why would such a business who caters to the exact kind of crowd who would instinctively flee the greasy nightlife scene set up shop in an area where the majority of its foot travelers indulge in Timequake-esque productions of Swingers and Sex in the City each weekend? Would they not be happier elsewhere on N3RD Street since they are practically there already? Is its continued operation a sign of defiance that denotes the rumblings of a rebellion against the douche class? These are questions that I can't provide answers to. Instead to Happily Ever After I say that while I don't entirely get you, I certainly admire your tenacity. Keep that freak flag flying kids.