coffee shops & reviews | Coffee, It's a Helluva Drug

travels with macchiato

I’ve been fortunate enough in recent months to do some travel within the US and have experienced some great coffee, here’s a few deets.

The Steel City

Not too long ago my daughter and I took a quick drive up to Pittsburgh, one of my favorite cities and a great place for coffee. On the way we stopped like every other traveler at one of the rest areas in Breezewood, PA, and the young woman working the counter at Dunkin’ asked if I wanted a macchiato, “like on your shirt!” Anyhooo……..

our new champion

Abraço, East Village, NYC. Quite honestly the best coffee I’ve ever had. More later.

update on D Light Café

An arrest has been made for the recent arson attack on D Light Café.

Here’s hoping they get up and running again soon. Can’t wait to enjoy another capuorange.

ETA: Huzzah! It looks there’s a capuorange in my near future

a heartbreaking update

Following up on a couple of recent posts on D Light Café and Bakery, home of the capuorange:

I stopped there this morning on my way to work, only to find this:

The door was open so I popped in. Anastasia and Vira Derun, the owners, were inside and looked absolutely devastated. They told me someone had set fire to the entrance at 5:00 am. Thankfully no one was hurt.

Here’s hoping the perpetrator is caught. You can help support the Deruns as they build the business back, through their GoFundMe drive.

stepping outside the comfort zone

We went out for brunch this morning to D Light Café and Bakery, a new place we had read about which looked promising. It was indeed a delight (no pun intended), everything was delicious and the owners and their staff couldn’t have been nicer.

This bit in the article caught my eye:

And then there’s the Capuorange, a double shot of espresso mixed with orange juice. “It sounds strange,” admits Vira, who says the unusual wake-up concoction has earned a dedicated following.

Well that’s…. different. Sounded like it could be really interesting, really disgusting, or anywhere in between. The description brought back an unhappy childhood memory of the time I got the brilliant idea that if my orange juice and my bowl of Cheerios each tasted good, they would taste even better together! Spoiler: they did not. At all.

Past experience be damned, I figured I had to find out how this combination tasted.

Mission-critical info from The NY Times

I’m just going to leave this here.

Happy National Espresso Day!

November 23 is national espresso day here in the US. Glad tidings to all who celebrate.

If you’re looking to joyfully slug back some of that dark brown nectar today, here are some cafés I highly recommend (basically, all those places that have received The Coveted Asterisk of Quality from my guide):

Ozo Coffee Company, Boulder, CO
Corvus Coffee Roasters, Denver, CO
Crema Coffee House, Denver, CO (Larimer Street)
Huckleberry Roasters, Denver, CO (Dairy Block)
Pablo’s Coffee, Denver, CO (13th & Pennsylvania)

Arethusa a mano, Bantam, CT
Coffee Pedaler, New Haven, CT
J. Rene Coffee Roasters, West Hartford, CT

Salt & Pepper Diner song of the day for 11/6

There was a guy in college with me whom I didn’t know, but whose name matched ‘Der Komissar’ in inflection, number of syllables, and it ended in -esar. So from that point to the day I die I only hear his name in this song.

SHA!!!!

Oregon redux

Made a quick trip back to the Pacific Northwest to drop my son off at college. Some coffee stuff and some non-coffee stuff to report.

Matty’s Pacific Northwest Coffee Adventures: Part Three

*Oregon coast, from US 101 north of Florence*

see Part 1 and Part 2

After Portland we headed down to Eugene, so my son could attend first year orientation at the University of Oregon (Go Ducks). We had a nice time here as well, getting to know the town, staying at a nice cottage. However, we may have chosen the wrong places, but frankly the food and coffee were underwhelming.