<p>Street 14 Coffee's chicken and bacon panini is served with chips and tomato soup with a pesto swirl.</p>

Being once again within the hallowed walls of 1410 Commercial St. evokes long-since-dimmed memories of a very different space. Many of you remember Chris’ News, as it inhabited the corner of 14th and Commercial streets for roughly 65 years. I remember Chris’ News as a peek into a forbidden adult world, one with cool Zippo lighters, sweet-smelling pipe tobacco, Ripple, glossy magazines on a high shelf far from a young boy’s reach. The men who worked there didn’t suffer children with a smile, no matter how many issues of Mad Magazine I loyally purchased there over the years. It was a place with an indescribable charm, and it’s gone forever.

Now, as Street 14 Coffee, it’s got another kind of charm that, while completely different and incomparable to the periodical peddler and tobacconist of old, is undeniable in its calculated retro feel. The interior looks as if it could have been transplanted (like the Water Avenue Coffee Company beans served there) from a hip Portland neighborhood, and some of the random eclecticities certainly look like hipster bait.

But this, I suppose, is part of Astoria’s evolution. We should be thankful that so many dowdy old structures like the Lewis Building are being renovated into businesses like Street 14 and the modern-style Commodore Hotel upstairs.

The menu has an eclectic feel to match the décor. Besides the usual coffeehouse suspects pastries, scones, cookies Street 14 offers grilled panini, several soups daily, breakfast items, salads and tapas. There are plenty of seats in the house, and when weather is nice, you can also dine “al fresco.”

The sandwiches are made with nice wide, thick slices of bread. We enjoyed the Street Fourteen ($7.95), a grilled ham and Swiss sandwich with a perfectly over-easy egg on top, but were baffled by the distracting sweet glaze on the bread. A tuna melt ($8.95) was grilled crispy, with plenty of the Swiss and cheddar cheeses melted out and cooked to a crunchy chip protruding from the bottom of the bread. I love it when that happens. A pita pocket sandwich ($7.95) filled with turkey, celery, lettuce and sweet cranberry was a bit watery and everything seemed chopped into one unintelligible mass. My guests enjoyed the crunch and freshness, so it’s a meal that simply needs the right audience. A veggie hummus wrap ($7.95) with spinach, cucumber, avocado, tomato, red onion, hummus and sunflower seeds was unwieldy, messy and not worth the trouble of handling. Vegans, however, are used to this sort of mess, and should be glad to get it.

Soups ($3.50 a cup) range from forgettable to absolutely awesome, based on the three sampled. The minestrone with elbow macaroni, spinach, beans and kale was too sweet and somehow bland. A tomato-pesto, a step beyond the commonplace tomato-basil, benefited from the extra pesto ingredients, but was nothing to write home about a little gritty, and in need of salt.

The chicken stew, however, was amazing. A thin, flavorful broth studded with potatoes, mushrooms and tender shredded chicken was unlike anything I’ve had outside of my own kitchen. It didn’t quite strike me as a stew; it’s lighter, and stews just aren’t summer fare, but I don’t care what they call it, for it is magnificent. Perhaps they will choose to keep it on permanently as of reading my strong recommendation.

You can order the party plate ($9.95), a selection of dips with crostini make that perfect crostini. Our favorite was a bright red pepper spread. Spicy, with cream cheese to cool, it was our priority to finish first. Other dips include a garlicky navy bean hummus, a sundried tomato hummus and a briny tapenade. I’m a bit of a hummus snob, as I’ve never had a hummus I didn’t feel I could improve upon, but Street 14 makes a valiant effort nonetheless.

Street 14 also offers a selection of bagels. We tried the bagel and lox ($7.95), which includes cream cheese, tomatoes, capers, red onion and your choice of bagel. I like the “everything” bagel. Not the best lox, I must say. Our server told us it comes from Costco. I make my own lox at home because it’s so easy. It would be nice to see Street 14 have housemade lox as a signature item.

As mentioned a few weeks back, I’m saving my opinions on the coffee until Coast Weekend’s coffee-themed issue in October, but Street 14 certainly has nothing to worry about. The baristas know what they’re doing, and every employee I encountered was extremely helpful and friendly. I look forward to returning.