what this town could use is a good coffee shop

starbux has this sammich that is turkey bacon + egg whites on a whole wheat english muffin. it is tasty and i wonder if it's good for me, or simply neutral 'not bad' for me. surely it is not 'bad' for me. i brought a coffee bag for a free cuppa and also had a gift card from somewhere, so despite what you've heard to the contrary, the free lunch does exist. well, it did exist. before i ate it. it's gone now. but it was here. but now it's gone.

this is a sort of cavernous starbux with an exposed duct trailing across a very high ceiling of exposed rafters. it's not industrial chic. it's not even strip mall chic. it's simply wugly. i would guess the architecture is supposed to lend an airiness, but only succeeds in a feeling of overexposure. the construction could possibly be overcome by the heart of the store, but this store has no heart. probably something to do with the fact that it's situated between a jack in the box and a best western. it's really suburbia at its worst, this impersonal cookie-cutter coffee shop.



but let's not let that get us down, shall we not now?

there are other choices, but nothing's quite right.

the beanery is usually good, inviting, with manageable crowds. but sometimes there is no one else there, which is just really odd because it's got like 20 tables. so when there's no one there, the feeling is that you're intruding somehow. and, it can also turn on you. they close early, around 18:00, 19:00 or so, and they really start closing up 30 mins or so before that, visibly clearing & cleaning in a way that sucks all the 'welcome' right out of the place.

there's this other place called maxximo jo's, and it looks fun from the outside, but inside there is a cryptic menu and few seating choices. you can perch on a stool at a high bar at the window, or sit in one of the one chairs. not a big selection on chairs, you see. plus when i've been in there, the kids who work there have been mostly annoyed at the interruption in their gossiping caused by my placing an order.

there's always jack in the box, eh?