from twitter Posted by chris on Jul 22nd, 2009 1 comment
follow me on twitterGlad I discovered the loft in this cafe. Now I can sit where I belong: Above everyone.
The view from above. Farley’s East in Oakland, CA.
review
Alarmingly good
Posted by chris on Jul 15th, 2009 3 comments
I never set an alarm clock. I work from home, on my own schedule and sleep very sporadically. I don’t plan things in advance so I rarely need to be somewhere at a specific time. But this morning, I broke my habit and set an iTunes alarm for 10:45AM…
All cause of Gregory’s Gourmet Desserts in Oakland, California. They’re open to the public one day a week: Wednesdays at 11:00AM (They close when they sell out.) Gregory’s is first & foremost a wholesale bakery, catering to hotels & restaurants. But due to public demand, they decided to open their doors to common streetwalkers — one day a week.
Ambiance
Their priority still lies with their corporate clients: They don’t have a “store-front” for the public. No fancy glass cases to show off their sweets like expensive jewelry. You basically walk down some stairs to a back room of the kitchen where they sell you cookies right off the baking trays.
No fancy printed menu behind the cash register (no cash register, either.) Instead, you walk by a human-sized dry-erase whiteboard just outside the door, filled from edge-to-edge with a huge list of cookies, cakes & cobblers. It’s not even pretty handwriting. It looks like I wrote it — And if you’ve ever had the misfortune of getting something handwritten from me, you know how shocking that is.
Fuck it. They don’t make menus, they make desserts. And you want ‘em.
My findings
- Key lime pie
- Peach cobbler
- 3 dark chocolate coffee cookies
- White chocolate blueberry oatmeal cookie. Tons of blueberry flavor. This is coming from a guy who’s still recovering from a cold.
- Peanut butter chocolate chip cookie
- Snickerdoodle
All for me.
food link
Coffee Art
Posted by chris on Jun 24th, 2009 2 comments
Caffe Latte from Bellano Coffee in Santa Clara, CA
Jina Bolton just posted this photo I took on her new site, Art in my coffee! If you want to see how it’s done, watch this video of a barista in action. And just think of all the times their parents told them to stop playing with their food.
before & after
“I just paid $26 for eggs.”
Posted by chris on Jun 22nd, 2009 add a comment
Had a nice, relaxing breakfast on the patio at Katy’s Place in Carmel-by-the-Sea, CA.
Eggs benedict: 3 poached eggs, smoked salmon, Hollandaise & caviar on top of an English muffin. Country potatoes. Fresh coffee.
Done.
- chris: I just paid $26 for eggs
- brian: Knowing you, it probably came with a side of fish from outer space. “Can you make sure the fish was orbiting a moon of Jupiter?”
from twitter Posted by chris on Jun 5th, 2009 add a comment
follow me on twitterThe woes of being a regular at a coffee shop: Instead of, “Sir, your drink is ready” this morning I hear, “Chris! Get your butt over here!”
miscellaneous
How to stay awake for 3 days
Posted by chris on May 8th, 2009 add a comment
Here are all the ingredients you need: Americano. No sugar. Egg. Apple. Water. Repeat.
Now that the project I’m working on is out (we relaunched QN5 Music, an independent hip-hop record label), I think it’s a good time to start curbing my americano addiction. I’m trying to wean myself down to one per day for now. I’ll let you know when I fail.
Previously on Cut & Taste
miscellaneous
I heart coffee
Posted by chris on Feb 14th, 2009 add a comment
I gave up caffeine for about a year, but now I rarely go a day without a cup of coffee. The best way to describe the extent of my addiction: 3 workers at my regular coffee stop know me & my usual order. And they all work different shifts.
Previously on Cut & Taste
The difference between caffeine & cocaine: Caffiend
food link
Caffiend
Posted by chris on Jan 17th, 2009 5 comments
My resolve to cut out caffeine lasted about a year, but now I’m back in the game — again.
It’s a helluva drug
New York Magazine has published an interesting piece on the differences between caffeine & it’s not-so-distant cousin, cocaine:
Cocaine and amphetamines essentially do the same thing, only they create not just a pleasant feeling but outright euphoria [...] But the higher a drug’s highs, the lower its lows, which is why a crack user needing a fix might rob an elderly neighbor at gunpoint while a coffee drinker might simply get snippy with co-workers.
Full article: The Coffee Junkie’s Guide to Caffeine Addiction
miscellaneous
Coffee and other fluids
Posted by chris on Dec 10th, 2008 1 comment
I’m sitting in Orchard Valley Coffee, eating a mushroom-chard quiche & drinking a hazelnut latte. The quiche ain’t bad — in the same way that any kind of bread with a bunch of cheese “ain’t bad” — but I’ve had better.
It’s 2PM and this cafe is packed. They have a huge space with tons of tables, benches & couches and almost every seat in the house is taken. Every power outlet within sitting distance is occupied. I thought I was the only one who had nothing better to do in the afternoon. What are all these people doing here at this time of day? Don’t they have jobs to work and life goals to accomplish? Damn hippies!
Ana is talking with me on AIM. She stepped away to tend to her daughter for a moment, but when she came back, she said, “That was the biggest PP diaper I’ve seen in my LIFE! The diaper was pleading, ‘No more pp please…’”
My response:
You’d think this would deter me from drinking my latte… BUT NO!
