Everyone knows that Steve likes his secrets. Every time he takes the wraps off of some new surprise during a keynote, you can just see that twinkle in his eye. He lives for that perfect instant when he can cast his gaze over a sea of awestruck, open-mouthed faces and know that he just blew the mind behind each and every one of them. No wonder he instituted a strict "no leaks" policy at Apple; how else could he have stunned the world with the iMac unveiling back in May of 1998? Keeping an engineering effort of that scale hidden for so long is no small feat.

Unfortunately, while developing a blue-green space egg on the sly is tough but doable, working on some things just really can't be kept under wraps all that well. Like, say, a building. Those of you who have been following the "Apple retail" rumors from the beginning know what we're talking about. For a long, long time, now, there have been whispers that Apple is planning to counter what can only be described as a pretty awful Mac presence in retail stores with the ultimate solution: Apple's own stores, in which the company has total control over those niggling little details like presentation, availability, and customer shopping experience-- which chains like Best Buy seem to consider costly and unnecessary frills.

But it's far easier for Steve to clamp the muzzle on his own company's employees than to silence outside contractors, and since Apple never planned to branch out into architecture, construction, and various other building-type areas, it comes as no surprise that details about Apple's own retail plans have come bubbling to the surface via looser-lipped outside agencies. Industry design magazines such as (appropriately enough) The Industry Design Magazine published tidbits of info about various firms who were designing Apple's new stores, etc. So this is one rumor that eventually started looking more and more like a certainty, barring any last-minute "Ah, screw this, let's just sell 'em door-to-door instead" decisions by His Mercurialness.

Here's the latest piece of the puzzle, which blows the whole story wide open: the San Jose Mercury News reports that the very first meatspace Apple Store will cater to the late-night geek crowd by selling Apple gear until 11PM each night once it opens its doors at the corner of University and Kipling Avenues in downtown Palo Alto, "just a couple of miles from Jobs' home." How do they know, you ask? Because a member of the city's architectural review board went ahead and blabbed. Thank heaven for garrulous civil servants!

As for the store itself, we're only calling it the Apple Store in lieu of any hard evidence to the contrary; reportedly the premiere Apple shop (not counting the company store at Apple's headquarters) "won't come with any signage, just two white Apple logos illuminated on glass doors." (Terrific. We sense a "The Artist Formerly Known As Prince" naming scenario.) According to the board, Apple was "pretty clear" about wanting a University Avenue address in Palo Alto, and so the store is going to settle in a 6500-square-foot space that used to be a HomeChef until it "burned down"-- wow, sounds like Steve really wanted that space. The lesson here, kids, is this: never cross an iCEO with a lighter and some kindling.