'Bux

Just read an interesting article about our ambivalence toward Starbucks. If you insist on getting your coffee there, I implore you to try the ghetto latte. Work the system, people. Work it!

Coffee Crawl Friday: Apartment 104

The place: small and kind of dirty. The coffee: who can tell underneath all the half-and-half? The barista: grouchy and frumped out. But I'll be damned if it didn't feel like home.

Coffee Crawl Thursday: Diamonds Coffee Shoppe

Diamonds Coffee Shoppe is located on the most godawful strip of Central Avenue. There are a few wooden tables set up in front of the shop(pe), but between the trucks belching past and the general fugliness of the scenery, I can't imagine anyone would want to sit there for longer than it takes to wait out an asthma attack. However, like countless people who grew up in total shitholes, Diamonds turned out cool in spite of its surroundings. It has a biker vibe (Harleys, not Schwinns), several small eclectic seating areas, talented neighbors, and "reasonably bottomless" cups of coffee. It's just the kind of unpretentious, blue-collar place that makes Northeast so Northeasty, and if you're in the area you should probably stop in. They also have beer.

Diamonds Coffee Shoppe
1618 Central Ave. NE
612.789.JAVA

Coffee Crawl Wednesday: Wilde Roast Cafe

If I had a more sophisticated palate, I'd talk about the coffee. If I had a more sophisticated education, I'd talk about the art. Suffice it to say that the Wilde Roast Cafe is pleasant and Victorian and its menu is extensive and contemporary, and that I like both the coffee and the art. I have a weakness for portraiture, as I imagine Oscar Wilde must have--what else could possess a man to write an entire novel about a portrait? Wilde can't be faulted for his appreciation of the form; the Victorians were too busy playing croquet to deconstruct art. If I'd ever bothered to take an art history class, I'd probably know that portraits are a tool of the bourgeois and that the bourgeois are a bunch of tools. Thank god I'm so unsophisticated: just look at her gorgeous earrings.

Wilde Roast Cafe
518 East Hennepin Ave.
612.331.4544

Coffee Crawl Tuesday: Taraccino Coffee

Taraccino Coffee: I'm here nearly every day because it's across the street from my office. What can I say about a place that's so familiar? The decor is unremarkable. The coffee is great. (Taraccino is one of the few places I frequent that offers a medium roast.) It recently came under new ownership, but besides seeing some new faces behind the cash register I haven't noticed any big changes. Before I started this experiment, it never bothered me that Taraccino shares retail space with a Bruegger's franchise. Now, I can smell a bagel being toasted, and I covet it.

Taraccino Coffee
224 E. Hennepin Ave.
612.617.0292

Northeast Coffee Crawl

Last December, Slate Magazine published an article claiming that Starbucks actually helps mom and pop coffeehouses succeed. By creating greater general demand for coffee, the Seattle-based giant has boosted everybody's business.

I don't totally buy this story. Still, there are plenty of places to get a decent cup in Minneapolis, and to celebrate that, I'm going to hit up a different place every day this week. I'll start at the Aster Cafe (125 Main Street SE) and work my way northeast. Here's the tentative agenda:

Monday: Aster Cafe
Tuesday: Taraccino Coffee (224 East Hennepin Ave.)
Wednesday: Wilde Roast Cafe (518 East Hennepin Ave.)
Thursday: Diamonds Coffee Shop (1618 Central Ave. NE)
Friday: ?????????

According to EnergyFiend.com, it would take 85.71 cups of coffee to kill me. I'll try to enjoy in moderation.

Central Perk

Today's Wi-Fi connection (full disclosure: I have broadband at home and at my office, and it's provided by Qwest) comes to us courtesy of The Boiler Room Cafe on south Third Avenue. It's my version of Central Perk. No Gunther, though. According to Wikipedia, he's still coasting on his Friends fame:

Mojtaba Asadian started a "Central Perk" franchise, registering the name in 32 countries. The decor of his coffee houses is inspired by that in Friends. James Michael Tyler, who plays Gunther, the Central Perk waiter in love with Rachel, attended the grand opening of the flagship Dubai cafe and is the spokesman for the company.

Evidently, the store has only one other location, in Geneva, which means it's not a chain. Ergo, if I find myself in Switzerland or the 'Emirates during the next 51 weeks, I am sooooooooo stopping in for a latte. Just in case, I'd better hoof it down to an indie salon and get myself a Rachel. I like to be prepared for all eventualities.