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plonqWhen I moved out here from the coast, one of the most painful things I had to give up was good coffee. I couldn't find good coffee in this town. I was hard-pressed to even find mediocre coffee. To give you an idea of how bad it was, even Starbucks hadn't opened a branch here - and I'd have settled for their middling brew over what was being offered here at the time.
Fortunately the situation has changed a bit since then, and now I can find a fair number of places offering mediocre coffee.
In the beginning there was the cafeteria downstairs. They offer a hot, brown beverage that may or may not be coffee, but it contains trace amounts of caffeine, and it's comparatively cheap. They have since started slapping labels on it like "Columbian", and "Esperanto Blend" to try and trick you into thinking that it will taste less vile - or taste like anything at all. As an added benefit, by pouring the same coffee into labelled urns they get to charge more for it.
The next closest place for coffee is Salisbury House across the street. We don't go there.
About five years ago Tim Horton's moved from their location in the Exchange District to an outlet in the mall across the way. Tim's coffee isn't especially good, but it's always fresh and it does the job in the morning. I can sum it up in four words: extra large single single.
If I wander a bit further afield, there is a Gourmet Cup about a third of the way along the length of the mall next to our office. I used to get their coffee all the time before it occurred to me one day that I really don't like it that much. A bit further along from them in the mall is a Starbucks kiosk that opened a couple of years back.
A couple of blocks further there is a Second Cup. They have relatively decent coffee, and a few speciality drinks that I also like, but they're a bit far to go for coffee.
Imagine my delight last week when a new sign went up across the street from our office for The Fyxx. They're not open yet, but they've already got a new regular customer once the coffee starts flowing. I'll feel a little bad for abandoning the gals at Tim Hortons (I'm a regular), but you gotta Go with the Joe. The Fyxx has pretty good coffee. Not exceptional, but pretty darned good by this city's standards. I am content.
Fortunately the situation has changed a bit since then, and now I can find a fair number of places offering mediocre coffee.
In the beginning there was the cafeteria downstairs. They offer a hot, brown beverage that may or may not be coffee, but it contains trace amounts of caffeine, and it's comparatively cheap. They have since started slapping labels on it like "Columbian", and "Esperanto Blend" to try and trick you into thinking that it will taste less vile - or taste like anything at all. As an added benefit, by pouring the same coffee into labelled urns they get to charge more for it.
The next closest place for coffee is Salisbury House across the street. We don't go there.
About five years ago Tim Horton's moved from their location in the Exchange District to an outlet in the mall across the way. Tim's coffee isn't especially good, but it's always fresh and it does the job in the morning. I can sum it up in four words: extra large single single.
If I wander a bit further afield, there is a Gourmet Cup about a third of the way along the length of the mall next to our office. I used to get their coffee all the time before it occurred to me one day that I really don't like it that much. A bit further along from them in the mall is a Starbucks kiosk that opened a couple of years back.
A couple of blocks further there is a Second Cup. They have relatively decent coffee, and a few speciality drinks that I also like, but they're a bit far to go for coffee.
Imagine my delight last week when a new sign went up across the street from our office for The Fyxx. They're not open yet, but they've already got a new regular customer once the coffee starts flowing. I'll feel a little bad for abandoning the gals at Tim Hortons (I'm a regular), but you gotta Go with the Joe. The Fyxx has pretty good coffee. Not exceptional, but pretty darned good by this city's standards. I am content.
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Date: 2005-08-09 02:59 pm (UTC)For a "convience store" Wawa has some great coffee. ;=3
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Date: 2005-08-09 03:04 pm (UTC)BTW, when I worked at my local Wawa they, coporate, had a goal to sell 7,000 cups of coffee in each store each week. To meet that goal, our store would've had to stop selling coffee on Thursday or Friday. At that time we were selling over 10,000 cups of coffee per week, sometimes broaching the 12,000 cup mark! 8=0
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Date: 2005-08-09 03:25 pm (UTC)Joe's was a combination pool hall and coffee shop. It was not fancy, but they served up the best cappuccinos and lattes. The clientele consisted mostly of aged Latin Americans, who would sit outside and reminisce about how much better the world used to be, and young, hardcore counter-culture gays & lesbians. What made Joe's special was as much the atmosphere as much as the coffee.
Continental was a few blocks further along, and an entirely different culture. They had a quiet, comfortable seating area with plush chairs where one could while away an hour or two with good coffee and a book. Their coffee was to die for - especially their Champagne blend. I don't know what coffees went into the blend, but it was a rich, sweet dark-roasted coffee whose memory still makes my mouth water. You could either get it roasted (sometimes still warm from the oven), or raw, so that you could roast it yourself when you got home. I never had the nerve to try that since I heard that it tends to smoke a lot.
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Date: 2005-08-09 04:59 pm (UTC)And as for roasting your own: oh yeah, believe me. That isn't something you even want to think about doing indoors. Besides setting off all the smoke detectors in the house, you really don't want that smell lingering. Coffee beans in the process of roasting smell nowhere near as good as the finished product.
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Date: 2005-08-09 03:12 pm (UTC)Of course, I'm guessing you're looking for something that's hot, in the cup, and handed to you. I reckon you'll have to wait 'til they open up across the street, then. I'm amused by the mental picture of the short, dumpy Plonq of your stories standing outside The Fyxx with his nose pressed against the glass, mewing piteously as he eyes the cases of coffee beans awaiting him. So close, but so far away...
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Date: 2005-08-09 03:28 pm (UTC)Your mental image is pretty close to reality on some counts - heck, on all counts. I'm sitting here sipping some sludge out of the bottom of the coffee maker we set up in our office here and it's all I can do to stop myself from running across the street to thump on the doors with my balled fists and wail, "For the love of all that's holy, let me in now!"