My friend Dillon, who has been one of my coffee gurus, tipped me off to this place. I was hooked after my first visit, and it’s still my favorite cafe in the DC area.
the Salt and Pepper Diner Essential Song of the Day
Because there’s more to life than coffee.
Inspired by this great bit from John Mulaney,
from time to time I’ll drop a song that deserves to be played 21x in a row. Here goes.
so, about Starbucks…..
…… they’re just not for me.
mini-review: La Tabatiere
Some places are more about the coffee. Some are more about the food. This one falls into the latter category, but they get the coffee right as well.
Gorgeous small bakery in a suburban town in northern Bergen County, NJ. Founded by a baker with a formal French background, and the display case proves this in spades. Not a good place to visit if you’re trying to avoid sweets or breads, because everything looks amazing.
mini-review: Maglianero Cafe
I love this place. It’s a small counter in a big, repurposed industrial building (a former grocery warehouse) near the lakefront in Burlington, VT. Part of a huge open space also used as an art gallery.
the confessional
I occasionally do things that are, for lack of a more elegant description, weird.
No different when it comes to coffee. Here’s an example.
how did I get here
Nothing in this blog is presented as gospel or truth. Taste by definition is subjective. I don’t pretend to be an expert, and I don’t pretend to have a definitive palate. In fact, it was made very clear to me recently that I am still very much a dilettante when it comes to a coffee palate, but that will be the subject of another post sometime soon.
Let me try to explain what I like, and hopefully why.
my gear
where to find it
last updated 7/22/24
Whenever I travel somewhere, I always google best coffee in <city name>. That and word of mouth are how I’ve found a lot of these places.
Here’s a list of Matty-approved coffee shops. I’ll keep this list pinned to the top of the blog and update it as I visit new places (or remember places I may have forgotten).
If I learn a shop closes I will remove it from the list. But please check ahead before you visit to ensure your destination still exists, given the vagaries of a low-margin business.
why?
Recently I was visiting an old friend, and after hearing me babble on about my coffee-based eccentricities, he said I should write a blog about my coffee hijinks.
My first thought was that was a breathtakingly unoriginal idea, and my immediate response to him was, “that’s exactly what the world doesn’t need.”
This site should prove me right.