At 5:55 a.m. on a dark, deserted street tucked between College and Beaver avenues, a car silently pulls into an empty parking spot. A man emerges a few seconds later, wearing a three-day-old five o’clock shadow and holding a tobacco pipe comfortably between his lips as if it’s an extra appendage. He walks quickly toward the coffee shop across the street, eager to get out of the chilly winter air.

Fiddling with his keys for a moment until the lock clicks, he enters the room and heads directly into the back, hanging his hunter-green winter coat on a peg and pulling off his leather gloves, throwing them haphazardly on the counter next to him.

Read the rest of our profile of William Christopher Clarke, the owner of The Cheese Shoppe and W.C. Clarke's Coffee, after the jump.