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review: Pitango Gelato & Coffee

Pitango Gelato is a local chain featuring their own high-end gelatos and sorbets, and coffee made with beans from local roaster Vigilante Coffee (if the name sounds familiar, you may have read about Vigilante here).

affogato wars of DC

*clockwise from top: Pitango; Dolcezza; Gelatteria*

The Washington DC area has a couple local chains (Dolcezza and Pitango) and a stand-alone cafe (Gelatteria) which have two main offerings: specialty coffee, and high-end gelato. Sounds like fodder for a taste test, so I recently visited all three for a comparison.

Salt & Pepper Diner Essential Song o’ the Day for 7/15

hey, something from this century for a change! this banger (isn’t that what the kids call it these days?) came up on my daughter’s playlist when we were in the car together yesterday, and hearing it for the first time in forever reminded me how much I love this song.

on (or possibly off?) the rails

For various and sundry reasons I am taking a 12 1/2 hour train ride today from Essex Junction, VT to Washington, DC, on Amtrak train 55 The Vermonter.

field report: Dublin

When you think of the Irish and what they drink, I’d wager coffee won’t be the first thing that will come to mind, it probably won’t be in the top five. But the millions who visit the Irish capital every year will find a great emerging specialty coffee scene. Keep your eyes out for a free foldout map to specialty cafes (we found one in The Fumbally), which is very helpful as you wander the city. Here’s a look at the places I enjoyed on a recent visit.

cuteness overload

Completely unrelated to coffee……

Yesterday my family and I visited Warrior Canine Connection for puppy petting. WCC is an organization which breeds, raises and trains service dogs for military members living with PTSD and traumatic brain injury and their families.

Vietnam, the next hot coffee origin?

*Ube Iced Latte at Cafe Phin in New York. Wall Street Journal photo by Nico Schinco*

Having lived in Southeast Asia and visited Vietnam a few times, when you say Vietnamese coffee I think of a sweet, delicious (but incredibly unhealthy) iced drink of instant coffee in sweetened condensed milk. Clearly I missed out on something very different.

So I loved reading this really interesting WSJ article on coffee from Vietnam – h/t to one of my ~~legion of~~ few regular readers (hi Dad!). And this post is an excuse to run the gorgeous picture which accompanied the article.

Lots to unpack here:

Salt & Pepper Diner Essential Song of the Day for 6/27

This song, sonically speaking, is haunting and beautiful and the best kind of earworm. But it’s the lyrics, I just can’t quite figure them out. Is the narrator someone to be admired, pitied, or despised? Listen to it 21x in a row and let me know what you think.

put me on the board!

I spent this week driving around New England, and visited some old favorite cafes and tried a few new ones. I also experienced a first, as I visited a coffee shop I will recommend in my guide – with the coveted asterisk! – even though I didn’t really like the coffee.