i All,
Gosh, sorry for the radio silence, folks – it has been a long two weeks on the road.
I am back roasting this weekend on Sunday, (November 8), and I’ll deliver and ship on Monday. Please check the website (www.freeportcoffee.com) for the coffees we’ll have available this week.
So, the holidays are coming up – and following are a few highlights of the coffees and special offers we will have available this year:
> If you order by December 1, any five pounds of the same coffee will be just $10/pound. For locals, we’ll deliver to you, and for those from away, shipping will be $4.99 for these orders. Since I can’t figure out how to do this on our website, please email me if you would like to do this, and I can process the order with you that way and arrange payment.
> We won’t do half pounds this year, but I can offer 12-ounce bags for orders of ten or more of the same coffee at a good price. Email me and tell me what coffee you are interested in and I’ll get right back to you with some specifics on pricing.
We’ll have available most of the coffees we have now, and in a few weeks, some great additions:
> A Guatemala from the Huehuetenango region grown in cooperation with Slow Food International by a Presidium (small collective) of 170 small growers from the villages of San Pedro Necta, La Libertad, and Todos Santos Cuchumatán.
> A sweet malty estate coffee from the Tjen Plateau in eastern part of Java.
> Our holiday special for this year, a traditional medium-dark Mokka-Java blend. This is one of the oldest blending recipes in all of coffee, and we’ve been waiting until we had just the right combination of origins to make this available to you. This one comes to you in our holiday packaging, so its perfect for giving. (Last year’s holiday blend was retired for a funny reason that I can’t print here – ask me next time I see you and I will explain.)
For your planning purposes, I would like to get your coffees to you as close to the holidays as possible so they are fresh. I will roast December 12-13 (good if you are mailing your coffee), and December 19-20 (and each week before then).
This was an interesting set of road trips – capped by a 700-mile blitz of college visits in California with one of my sons. I took advantage of the jet lag to do some exploring of the coffee scenes in the towns we visited . . .
> Fresh off the plane, I walked the entire length of the Ojai Valley in near darkness, watching the exquisite desert sunrise and coming upon the only-imagined Ojai Valley Coffee Roasting Company, where I hung with some great locals, enjoyed some shots from their La Marzocco and had a nice cup of Costa Rica.
> Onward to Pismo Beach – perhaps the low point of the trip from a coffee standpoint. The Wild West Cinnamon Roll café had very pedestrian coffee, the Java Shack, though possessed of a nice ambiance, sent me screaming off into the misty coastal morning by offering me a delicious cup of Toasted Marshmallow (coffee), and out of desperation, I ended up at the Targetstorelike vibe of the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf for an over-roasted cup from Brazil.
> In Monterey, I got some local recommendations to a nice spot called Plumes in the old wharf part of town and enjoyed several good cups from their pourover station. This place apparently has a lot of trouble keeping their staff – I was thankful for the great baristas at the Royal Bean.
> Next (shudder) we ended up in a motel next to the highway in picturesque Daly City – but the morning walk yielded a really nice experience at a Starbucks. Though I am not so crazy about their coffee, I have to say that they sure employ a lot of nice people.
> And then, a great morning walking the backstreets of Petaluma – and the sad circumstance of Petaluma Coffee and Tea (with two sweet Probat roasters) not opening until later and the Aqus Café being completely inaccessible because of a construction project. Out of sentiment for my upbringing in Berkeley, I hung out at Peets, drank some really dark roasted espresso and watched the chaos of their morning rush. Coming from the languid pace of Maine, its funny to watch the stresses brought on these people by a long morning commute.
And the Bay Bridge was closed most of the time we were there – on the way to the airport, we saw the mother of all traffic jams; at least three hours to go 25 miles.
It’s so nice to be home. I hope all of you are well as winter settles in (our first snow of the year is melting in the yard), and that this finds you well.
All the best,
Kent
Showing posts with label California. Show all posts
Showing posts with label California. Show all posts
Thursday, May 19, 2011
Royal Bean Anniversary Celebration and the San Francisco Coffee Scene
Hi Friends,
OK, I am back in town again, and happy to serve your coffee needs this weekend. I’ll be roasting on Sunday the 21st, then shipping and delivering on Monday.
Royal Bean Anniversary Celebration this Saturday
This Saturday, The Royal Bean celebrates a year of bringing great coffee and a great café experience to Yarmouth. Its been fun watching them grow, and we congratulate Jim and his great team of crack baristas on their success.
You are all cordially invited to join the anniversary party this Saturday (June 20) at the café. The festivities kick off at 10:00 with a kid’s art program (crafts and face painting), a customer appreciation cookout at 11:00 and music by Strause and Co. at 1:00. There will be raffles and giveaways all day.
And, Tanji and I will be doing a show and tell featuring our strange collection of brewing devices, a roasting demonstration, a tasting of some really nasty robusta (every coffee drinking has to try this just once) and answers to any and all questions you’d like to throw our way. We’ll be there all morning starting at 9:00.
A Coffee Geek on the Streets of San Francisco
En route to the airport the other day, I decided to check out the explosive San Francisco coffee scene. Some great new cafes had sprung up since I moved from there 12 years ago, and I wanted to experience three of these that are getting a lot of attention for their devotion to quality coffee:
Four Barrel Coffee
Four Barrel, located at one end of Valencia Street in the trying so hard not to be trendy Mission District, exudes warm elegance and a dedication to great coffee and little else. It is nearly a precondition that cool restaurant spaces in San Francisco be old warehouse space, and this is no exception. This deep, wide room, with high ceilings and floor to ceiling windows at the front and back, showcases a roasting operation in the back (a funky old Probat with an afterburner) and the front seating area is comfortable and airy. Over an original shiny concrete floor with worn shades of red paint from the previous tenant, chairs seeming from a Gulag era Soviet gradeschool sit against angular tables of old wood. A low wraparound counter of wide planks houses their two three-group La Marzocco Mistral espresso machines, a cash register and a small pastry counter that offers a choice of two different croissants.
That’s it. No mints. No cookies or preprepared salads. Certainly no blender. I didn’t see decaf. No smoothies, bottled beverages, t-shirts, travel mugs, brewing equipment or cookies. Shelves on a wall offer eight very high-end coffees for sale in austere paper bags, and there is the impression that when those are sold that will be it for the day. Like a bakery in a way.
I said I was from Maine and leaving today so unfortunately I couldn’t come to the cupping event they hold each Wednesday. The awesome counter guy said he used to live in Portland and work for Coffee by Design. I told him I was a roaster and he gave me a shot of espresso gratis. The espresso was very nice. I had some of their Costa Rica, which I felt was a bit on the bright side, but then that’s how Costas are.
Ritual Roasters
I started smiling the moment I entered Ritual. Their shop is deeper still into the Mission, down where the character of the neighborhood is still preserved. Many people on the street speak Spanish, the block is shared with an Indian restaurant, an auto repair place, some mystery storefronts and a used bookstore or two.
Just inside the front door is a long, Last Supper style communal table, some seen better days palm trees and some comfy couches. Suspended from the high painted ceiling are some old fans, diner type lighting fixtures and some cool bare lightbulbs at the end of long black tentacles. Jimi playing Voodoo Chile.
Three espressos are available from the four group Syneso. They have a Clover, the exciting $10K single cup brewing technology whose lifebreath was severed when Starbucks bought it. The Clover just brewed my now cooling cup of Sumatra Sidikalang (Jim, this one is for you).
I am not overwhelmed by this coffee, but it is a nice cup and unique for a Sumatra.
I am enjoying a nice gingerbread from the generous pastry case (note to Four Barrel – man doth not live on coffee alone).
A dog barks outside, wanting its master to stop drinking coffee and come play. Laptops adorn tables. Yet another old Probat lives in the back, ministered to by a tattooed roaster. Hey Joe comes on. Shops like this are so tied to their neighborhoods, they could be set up in the middle of the street and no one would notice.
It makes me happy every time I come back here that it is still possible to find experiences that feel like San Francisco.
Before leaving, I ordered a shot of their Hopscotch espresso. Much more interesting than the Four Barrel shot – better as a single shot and very unique. Long line at the counter now as the city wakes up.
Now heading back to Blue Barrel. I went there earlier, but the person who knows how to run the $20K Japanese four-station siphon brewer wasn’t in yet.
Blue Bottle
I had some trouble finding Blue Bottle the first time through. Its tucked into a short alley behind the old SF mint building on the fringe the South of Market district, and the only marker for the business was an iconic blue bottle on the corner of the building.
The interior is austere – all gray and fifties hospital green and old government building white. And they too are mostly about the coffee. They offer espresso two ways, their house blend in shots and milk drinks via a three group La Marzocco machine, and a single origin espresso of the day pulled on an old Bosco lever machine.
The centerpiece of the operation is a long counter anchored at one end by a tall “Kyoto Style” cold coffee drip brewer, a nearly four foot tall array of beakers that would seem at home in a college chem. lab, and at the other, a five station halogen siphon station.
For food, they offer just a few brioche, and other drinks include some teas, a gourmet hot chocolate, somebody’s signature apple juice and a variety of other coffee preparations. A coffee of the day (in this case a Mesa de los Santos Colombia) is made at a pourover station.
I ordered a small wet process Ethiopia Koratie ($6) from the siphon, and sat sushi bar style on the other side of the glass as the barista prepared my pot. Preheated water is added to a perfectly round flask sitting on a stand above a halogen heating element. The coffee (35g for about ten ounces of coffee) is ground to order, then added to another flask placed above the first, this one with a rubber sealing gasket. As the water boiled, the top flask is snugged onto the lower to seal the connection, then the steam pressure pushes the water up a spout into the top chamber, where it is stirred and left to steep for 30 seconds. The heating element is then turned off and a siphon action pulls the brewed coffee back into the lower chamber. Coffee Theatre at its finest.
The cup was good, but I was paying more for the experience than the coffee. I thought they had used a bit more coffee than necessary and the strength overwhelmed the sweetness of the Ethiopia.
Then to complete my round of intense caffeination, a shot of their espresso. I didn’t care for this one, as the flavor was too far away from what I expect in espresso and there was an almost soapy character at play.
In conclusion, after visiting all these hallowed reputations, the best cup I had was the Sumatra at Ritual, and I liked their espresso best of the bunch too. And really, I like our coffee, and I like the way the prepare coffee at The Royal Bean. This comparison makes me feel like we are doing many things right.
Coffee Cinema
If you have been wondering which is better coffee among Greek, Israeli (with cucumbers!) or made on a cheap plastic espresso machine, you won’t want to miss this short:
http://www.howcast.com/videos/81494-How-To-Brew-the-Best-Coffee
Or not.
See you soon – enjoy your weekend!
Kent
OK, I am back in town again, and happy to serve your coffee needs this weekend. I’ll be roasting on Sunday the 21st, then shipping and delivering on Monday.
Royal Bean Anniversary Celebration this Saturday
This Saturday, The Royal Bean celebrates a year of bringing great coffee and a great café experience to Yarmouth. Its been fun watching them grow, and we congratulate Jim and his great team of crack baristas on their success.
You are all cordially invited to join the anniversary party this Saturday (June 20) at the café. The festivities kick off at 10:00 with a kid’s art program (crafts and face painting), a customer appreciation cookout at 11:00 and music by Strause and Co. at 1:00. There will be raffles and giveaways all day.
And, Tanji and I will be doing a show and tell featuring our strange collection of brewing devices, a roasting demonstration, a tasting of some really nasty robusta (every coffee drinking has to try this just once) and answers to any and all questions you’d like to throw our way. We’ll be there all morning starting at 9:00.
A Coffee Geek on the Streets of San Francisco
En route to the airport the other day, I decided to check out the explosive San Francisco coffee scene. Some great new cafes had sprung up since I moved from there 12 years ago, and I wanted to experience three of these that are getting a lot of attention for their devotion to quality coffee:
Four Barrel Coffee
Four Barrel, located at one end of Valencia Street in the trying so hard not to be trendy Mission District, exudes warm elegance and a dedication to great coffee and little else. It is nearly a precondition that cool restaurant spaces in San Francisco be old warehouse space, and this is no exception. This deep, wide room, with high ceilings and floor to ceiling windows at the front and back, showcases a roasting operation in the back (a funky old Probat with an afterburner) and the front seating area is comfortable and airy. Over an original shiny concrete floor with worn shades of red paint from the previous tenant, chairs seeming from a Gulag era Soviet gradeschool sit against angular tables of old wood. A low wraparound counter of wide planks houses their two three-group La Marzocco Mistral espresso machines, a cash register and a small pastry counter that offers a choice of two different croissants.
That’s it. No mints. No cookies or preprepared salads. Certainly no blender. I didn’t see decaf. No smoothies, bottled beverages, t-shirts, travel mugs, brewing equipment or cookies. Shelves on a wall offer eight very high-end coffees for sale in austere paper bags, and there is the impression that when those are sold that will be it for the day. Like a bakery in a way.
I said I was from Maine and leaving today so unfortunately I couldn’t come to the cupping event they hold each Wednesday. The awesome counter guy said he used to live in Portland and work for Coffee by Design. I told him I was a roaster and he gave me a shot of espresso gratis. The espresso was very nice. I had some of their Costa Rica, which I felt was a bit on the bright side, but then that’s how Costas are.
Ritual Roasters
I started smiling the moment I entered Ritual. Their shop is deeper still into the Mission, down where the character of the neighborhood is still preserved. Many people on the street speak Spanish, the block is shared with an Indian restaurant, an auto repair place, some mystery storefronts and a used bookstore or two.
Just inside the front door is a long, Last Supper style communal table, some seen better days palm trees and some comfy couches. Suspended from the high painted ceiling are some old fans, diner type lighting fixtures and some cool bare lightbulbs at the end of long black tentacles. Jimi playing Voodoo Chile.
Three espressos are available from the four group Syneso. They have a Clover, the exciting $10K single cup brewing technology whose lifebreath was severed when Starbucks bought it. The Clover just brewed my now cooling cup of Sumatra Sidikalang (Jim, this one is for you).
I am not overwhelmed by this coffee, but it is a nice cup and unique for a Sumatra.
I am enjoying a nice gingerbread from the generous pastry case (note to Four Barrel – man doth not live on coffee alone).
A dog barks outside, wanting its master to stop drinking coffee and come play. Laptops adorn tables. Yet another old Probat lives in the back, ministered to by a tattooed roaster. Hey Joe comes on. Shops like this are so tied to their neighborhoods, they could be set up in the middle of the street and no one would notice.
It makes me happy every time I come back here that it is still possible to find experiences that feel like San Francisco.
Before leaving, I ordered a shot of their Hopscotch espresso. Much more interesting than the Four Barrel shot – better as a single shot and very unique. Long line at the counter now as the city wakes up.
Now heading back to Blue Barrel. I went there earlier, but the person who knows how to run the $20K Japanese four-station siphon brewer wasn’t in yet.
Blue Bottle
I had some trouble finding Blue Bottle the first time through. Its tucked into a short alley behind the old SF mint building on the fringe the South of Market district, and the only marker for the business was an iconic blue bottle on the corner of the building.
The interior is austere – all gray and fifties hospital green and old government building white. And they too are mostly about the coffee. They offer espresso two ways, their house blend in shots and milk drinks via a three group La Marzocco machine, and a single origin espresso of the day pulled on an old Bosco lever machine.
The centerpiece of the operation is a long counter anchored at one end by a tall “Kyoto Style” cold coffee drip brewer, a nearly four foot tall array of beakers that would seem at home in a college chem. lab, and at the other, a five station halogen siphon station.
For food, they offer just a few brioche, and other drinks include some teas, a gourmet hot chocolate, somebody’s signature apple juice and a variety of other coffee preparations. A coffee of the day (in this case a Mesa de los Santos Colombia) is made at a pourover station.
I ordered a small wet process Ethiopia Koratie ($6) from the siphon, and sat sushi bar style on the other side of the glass as the barista prepared my pot. Preheated water is added to a perfectly round flask sitting on a stand above a halogen heating element. The coffee (35g for about ten ounces of coffee) is ground to order, then added to another flask placed above the first, this one with a rubber sealing gasket. As the water boiled, the top flask is snugged onto the lower to seal the connection, then the steam pressure pushes the water up a spout into the top chamber, where it is stirred and left to steep for 30 seconds. The heating element is then turned off and a siphon action pulls the brewed coffee back into the lower chamber. Coffee Theatre at its finest.
The cup was good, but I was paying more for the experience than the coffee. I thought they had used a bit more coffee than necessary and the strength overwhelmed the sweetness of the Ethiopia.
Then to complete my round of intense caffeination, a shot of their espresso. I didn’t care for this one, as the flavor was too far away from what I expect in espresso and there was an almost soapy character at play.
In conclusion, after visiting all these hallowed reputations, the best cup I had was the Sumatra at Ritual, and I liked their espresso best of the bunch too. And really, I like our coffee, and I like the way the prepare coffee at The Royal Bean. This comparison makes me feel like we are doing many things right.
Coffee Cinema
If you have been wondering which is better coffee among Greek, Israeli (with cucumbers!) or made on a cheap plastic espresso machine, you won’t want to miss this short:
http://www.howcast.com/videos/81494-How-To-Brew-the-Best-Coffee
Or not.
See you soon – enjoy your weekend!
Kent
Friday, September 26, 2008
Coffee and Disneyland
Hello, Friends . . .
We are roasting next on Monday, September 29, and any orders received through noon that day will be shipped or delivered on Tuesday the 30th. If you are local, email me, and away orders are easier if they go through the website (www.freeportcoffee.com).
Barack O’Java has now become our best-selling coffee, and we’ll continue to offer this through the November election. We donate $1 of each package sold to the campaign. For the very few of you who have asked, I am sorry but we don’t offer a McPalin coffee.
I write you this week from the Disneyland Hotel in Anaheim, California, where I am running a conference. Imagine the strange bedfellows of very small children, frazzled parents and several thousand pharmaceutical scientists, and this is my world for five days. Because of a last minute construction project here at the hotel, we enter our conference through the main entrance of “Goofy’s Kitchen,” weaving our way through an armada of parked strollers and costumed Mickies, Goofies and Daffies (who enable the Disney Corporation to get $30 each for a breakfast buffet). In the morning, the gazillion kids are fired up for a day in the park; in the afternoon, they assume a slumped position as they sleep by the hundreds in their strollers.
Predictably, the coffee here sucks.
I knew before I came on this trip that there would be no hope for coffee at Disneyland, so I came equipped with a small electric teakettle, a hand grinder, a filter brewer and two coffees – a Guat and an El Salvador Peaberry – both roasted the day before I left. They have poured well on this trip. And yes, I am obsessed with good coffee. :)
So, I can’t invoke your pity by complaining that I have to drink the whitebread swill they serve here, but I will take the liberty of using Disneyland as a metaphor for the menace that is generic coffee.
I think now and then about coffee as a food, rather than a beverage unto itself. And when I think about coffee in this way, I consider coffee as it is served at places like Disneyland.
It comes from no place; it is only “coffee.”
It was roasted by no one; it is only “coffee.”
It has no brand; it is only “coffee.”
It was not ground in a grinder you know about, and it was prepared only in a “coffee maker.”
It is not special. In this setting, it is allowed no adjectives.
Would we allow this to happen with any of our other favorite foods?
Would we eat only “Cheese”? “Meat”? “Sauce”, “Juice”, “Sandwiches”, “Bread”?
“Food”?
I come to Disneyland harboring two addictions, caffeine and good coffee. It would be easy enough to bring some No Doz to satisfy the former, but the latter is harder, and it is often a need that is impossible to satisfy on the road. Airports, business hotels, gas stations and roadside diners insist on serving only “coffee.”
In the world of specialty coffee, roasters and cafes think a lot about coffee education. We know that most of the coffee drinkers in our country still drink this very generic brew – and that in many other countries, instant coffee (made largely from cheap, bitter Robusta beans) is still the market leader. Some simple rules about coffee buying and preparation can really change the experience of coffee for people, and even for those who won’t move all the way into the higher end coffees like those we sell, the daily cup will be better.
One of the great joys I have about supplying The Royal Bean cafe is that I get to spend a lot of time hanging out and watching the interactions between the staff and the customers. Quite often, someone who is new to the café will not have had the opportunity to choose from among multiple coffees when they order – and this gives Jim and his staff a great opening to talk about the flavors and textures and smells of different coffee origins in relation to each other. These talks are so cool, because the minute that customer tastes a new coffee, they learn something – and using this learning takes them to a greater appreciation of the value of taking more care in buying and brewing their own coffees.
And inch-by-inch, these folks will go out in the world to places like Disneyland, and ask for something more. And maybe, just maybe, someday, they will make a difference and those who would genericize this wonderful beverage will try a little harder to serve coffees labeled by origin country and roast level.
On our website, at the bottom of the coffee stories blog, there is a long article I wrote about finding good coffee on the road. This quest can be a lot of fun, and I hope you will read this someday and engage in your own explorations when you travel.
I look forward to being back in Maine this weekend. Enjoy the beautiful fall days you are having there . . . and as always, thanks for your ongoing support.
Cheers,
Kent
We are roasting next on Monday, September 29, and any orders received through noon that day will be shipped or delivered on Tuesday the 30th. If you are local, email me, and away orders are easier if they go through the website (www.freeportcoffee.com).
Barack O’Java has now become our best-selling coffee, and we’ll continue to offer this through the November election. We donate $1 of each package sold to the campaign. For the very few of you who have asked, I am sorry but we don’t offer a McPalin coffee.
I write you this week from the Disneyland Hotel in Anaheim, California, where I am running a conference. Imagine the strange bedfellows of very small children, frazzled parents and several thousand pharmaceutical scientists, and this is my world for five days. Because of a last minute construction project here at the hotel, we enter our conference through the main entrance of “Goofy’s Kitchen,” weaving our way through an armada of parked strollers and costumed Mickies, Goofies and Daffies (who enable the Disney Corporation to get $30 each for a breakfast buffet). In the morning, the gazillion kids are fired up for a day in the park; in the afternoon, they assume a slumped position as they sleep by the hundreds in their strollers.
Predictably, the coffee here sucks.
I knew before I came on this trip that there would be no hope for coffee at Disneyland, so I came equipped with a small electric teakettle, a hand grinder, a filter brewer and two coffees – a Guat and an El Salvador Peaberry – both roasted the day before I left. They have poured well on this trip. And yes, I am obsessed with good coffee. :)
So, I can’t invoke your pity by complaining that I have to drink the whitebread swill they serve here, but I will take the liberty of using Disneyland as a metaphor for the menace that is generic coffee.
I think now and then about coffee as a food, rather than a beverage unto itself. And when I think about coffee in this way, I consider coffee as it is served at places like Disneyland.
It comes from no place; it is only “coffee.”
It was roasted by no one; it is only “coffee.”
It has no brand; it is only “coffee.”
It was not ground in a grinder you know about, and it was prepared only in a “coffee maker.”
It is not special. In this setting, it is allowed no adjectives.
Would we allow this to happen with any of our other favorite foods?
Would we eat only “Cheese”? “Meat”? “Sauce”, “Juice”, “Sandwiches”, “Bread”?
“Food”?
I come to Disneyland harboring two addictions, caffeine and good coffee. It would be easy enough to bring some No Doz to satisfy the former, but the latter is harder, and it is often a need that is impossible to satisfy on the road. Airports, business hotels, gas stations and roadside diners insist on serving only “coffee.”
In the world of specialty coffee, roasters and cafes think a lot about coffee education. We know that most of the coffee drinkers in our country still drink this very generic brew – and that in many other countries, instant coffee (made largely from cheap, bitter Robusta beans) is still the market leader. Some simple rules about coffee buying and preparation can really change the experience of coffee for people, and even for those who won’t move all the way into the higher end coffees like those we sell, the daily cup will be better.
One of the great joys I have about supplying The Royal Bean cafe is that I get to spend a lot of time hanging out and watching the interactions between the staff and the customers. Quite often, someone who is new to the café will not have had the opportunity to choose from among multiple coffees when they order – and this gives Jim and his staff a great opening to talk about the flavors and textures and smells of different coffee origins in relation to each other. These talks are so cool, because the minute that customer tastes a new coffee, they learn something – and using this learning takes them to a greater appreciation of the value of taking more care in buying and brewing their own coffees.
And inch-by-inch, these folks will go out in the world to places like Disneyland, and ask for something more. And maybe, just maybe, someday, they will make a difference and those who would genericize this wonderful beverage will try a little harder to serve coffees labeled by origin country and roast level.
On our website, at the bottom of the coffee stories blog, there is a long article I wrote about finding good coffee on the road. This quest can be a lot of fun, and I hope you will read this someday and engage in your own explorations when you travel.
I look forward to being back in Maine this weekend. Enjoy the beautiful fall days you are having there . . . and as always, thanks for your ongoing support.
Cheers,
Kent
Monday, May 12, 2008
One Morning in North Beach
Submitted by Joe G. from San Francisco
I remember my very first real espresso, pulled by the barista and owner of Cafe Trieste in San Francisco's North Beach. I had taken my partner Tanji there on our last morning in town, after a morning walk through Chinatown. Just after that cuppa, we had to bolt back to our hotel and then head to the airport.
Before this trip, I had promised Tanji she would see a real rock star on the streets of SF, boasting that they were "everywhere."
And as we sat enjoying the most perfect ever cappuccino, I reflected that I hadn't made good on this one. Sigh.
We finished that wonderful cup and headed out the door - and right outside, enjoying a morning smoke and some good conversation was Paul Kantner, former leader of the Jefferson Airplane. Just sitting there like a regular guy.
I beamed, then quickly hussled Tanji across the street. "Don't look, don't look," I muttered under my breath.
"What?"
Shhhhh - don't look."
Then safely from the other side of the intersection. "OK, look - know who that is?"
"No, who?"
The movie "Diner" crosses my mind. "Its Paul Kantner - your rock star."
"Wasn't that the BEST coffee? Who's Paul Kantner?"
Sigh. It really was the best coffee.
I remember my very first real espresso, pulled by the barista and owner of Cafe Trieste in San Francisco's North Beach. I had taken my partner Tanji there on our last morning in town, after a morning walk through Chinatown. Just after that cuppa, we had to bolt back to our hotel and then head to the airport.
Before this trip, I had promised Tanji she would see a real rock star on the streets of SF, boasting that they were "everywhere."
And as we sat enjoying the most perfect ever cappuccino, I reflected that I hadn't made good on this one. Sigh.
We finished that wonderful cup and headed out the door - and right outside, enjoying a morning smoke and some good conversation was Paul Kantner, former leader of the Jefferson Airplane. Just sitting there like a regular guy.
I beamed, then quickly hussled Tanji across the street. "Don't look, don't look," I muttered under my breath.
"What?"
Shhhhh - don't look."
Then safely from the other side of the intersection. "OK, look - know who that is?"
"No, who?"
The movie "Diner" crosses my mind. "Its Paul Kantner - your rock star."
"Wasn't that the BEST coffee? Who's Paul Kantner?"
Sigh. It really was the best coffee.
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