Traveling Feast

I’m in love.  Mocha love.

This comes from a guy who only orders coffee if it might go well with what I plan to eat.  It is a good thing I don’t live anywhere near Redmond WA or my wife might look at our VISA bill and begin to ask questions.

“What are all these charges at Kitanda Brazilian Bakery and Espresso?”

“Uh…”

“This isn’t like you.  Are you meeting someone?”

“Well… um…”

“What is it?  Tell me! There are 100s of dollars of unexplained charges here.”

“I’m too embarrassed.  I didn’t think it would go this far.”

“What are you talking about?”

“I’m in love… but wait… before you do anything rash.  It is only coffee.  Nothing more.  Delicious, beautiful Brazilian coffee, but that’s all.”

Counseling would probably be required.  Things would be rough for a while.  We’d make it.  I’d probably be drinking green tea again within a few months, but there would be times I would break down and cry.

Yet since I live in Spokane I hope to never need to have the imagined conversation above.  Our VISA bill won’t reflect daily charges at Kitanda and I won’t need to invent excuses to drive to Redmond day after day.  But you can be sure I’ll be back when I’m in the Seattle area and I suggest you do the same.

One sip and you just might be in love too.

Full Disclosure: I’m not a coffee aficionado.  I know plenty: Lea Greene, Daryl Geffken, Jake Reidt come to mind immediately.

Maybe I’ve hung back a bit because I so mercilessly made fun of my mom for her coffee addiction when I was in high school.  Or I maybe the taste of coffee itself never thrilled me without so much sugar it made more sense to order something else.  As the risk of being expelled from the Northwest, I’ll admit we still don’t brew a pot at home except when guests (or mom) comes over.  But after hanging out with enough people who are borderline fanatical about their coffee, I’m working to develop an appreciation for different roasts and blends if only not to embarrass myself in public.

This said, I met two friends at Caffe Delicio on North Monroe yesterday, and I suggest you go out of your way to try not only their coffee, but enjoy the space they’ve created.  I’ve driven by their double lane commuter establishment for years and never turned in.  Yesterday I parked and walked in only to be surprised and delighted by the design work inside.  I also appreciated the collection of unique mugs they use to serve customers who plan to drink their coffee at a table rather than in traffic.

St. Regis Travel Center Edition: Western Montana travel kitsch seems to lean heavily on huckleberries and outhouses for the local items, but a number of more generic items also caught my eye in the food-related kitsch category.  Weigh in with which of the items you think should take top honors.

Entry #1: “Chili Makins” that claim to not to contribute to global warm or ozone depletion.

Entry #2: Silicone bakeware with a conscience.  “Let them eat cake” takes on new meaning.

Entry #3: Ice cube nostagia for the early video game addict.

Entry #4: Possibly the strangest of the items in the expansive local huckleberry line-up.

Entry #5: For the butter challenged who appreciate single season, single action gadgets, comes the Butter Boy.  I believe it runs on ethanol.

Entry #6: When just a state-branded shot glass won’t do, go for the one with the miniature bear camped inside.

Entry #7: The Celene Dion soundtrack is optional.

And our final St. Regis Travel Center entry, #8: The moose-chugger bottle holder.

Your votes please.

A friend sent me a distressed text yesterday from home (Spokane): “AAACK!  What happened to Bittersweet Bakery?  It is empty and has a for lease sign in the window.”

I’m in California briefly, but I’m already in mourning even before I see the sign with my own eyes.  The Bittersweet Bakery on the lower South Hill has been a strikingly hospitable… dare I say it, happy… spot for coffee, from-scratch pastries, and unique and delicious crepes.  Invariably when I arrived, the sun would be streaming through the front windows onto the hard wood floor and the corner of the pastry case.

If hungry, I ordered a crepe.  If not, I still rarely could resist a scone.  And now it is gone.  If any of you personally know the owners, could you pass along a way to contact them?  I’d like to thank them for the numerous bright mornings I enjoyed at a table not far from the door.

New England Trip #2

The first time I set foot on Connecticut soil was late in the evening of May 22, 2009, and it didn’t register that night on the drive from the Hartford airport to the home of Michael and Amanda Hyman in Avon.  I didn’t consciously notice it the next day, a Saturday, or even Sunday.  But by Monday it hit me.

Virtually every corner in New England seems to have a Dunkin’ Donuts.  Coming from the Northwest that gave birth to Starbucks, I thought I knew what market domination looked like.  I was wrong.  Market domination… at least in the Northeast… comes in pink.

It is stunning.  They are omnipresent.  Every few feet it seems on any main street  is another sign.  And behind every second or third turn in the countryside you come across a gas station and another Dunkin’ Donuts.

I don’t yet have a clear fix exactly on what the draw is.  The donuts?  The coffee?  Something else?  People across New England rave about  the coffee and the sign has a picture of a steaming cup rather than a donut, but then there is the name.

Yet I am not sure either the coffee or the donuts full explain Dunkin’ market strength.  The coffee has nice flavor without a bitter edge, and the donuts beat plenty of greasy supermarket bakery types as well as clearly pounding the best of a competing regional chain called The Whole Donut.

There is still room for a mom-n-pop shops like Luke’s in the Farmington Valley to offer something high quality and unique, but it seems that it would be a huge challenge for any smaller chains or independent stores to take on the truly massive company.   The puzzle for me is why they haven’t appeared to change their stores from the  sterile, utilitarian, and often uncomfortable feel that seems designed to push people out the door rather than welcome them in.  This might have worked in the past, but I suspect the future belongs to places that make people want to linger.  But then it is quite possible their market research tells them something different that will remain viable.  It certainly appears to have worked thus far.

S+

How best to describe Winona?  LaDuke in a Native American leader and, as such, it it hard not to collect the title “activist” as well but rather than refine a rant and hit the speaking circuit, she seems to have instead put her passion into doing a great deal to help her tribe and quite a few other along the way.  I had the chance to hear her describe some of what she has done through Native Harvest last night.

Convinced that the huge issues facing us all in the coming years will be food security and energy security she had committed the last several decades of her life to creating capacity for both on her reservation in Minnesota.  There is the heritage maple syrup operation with 5000 taps, a wild rice mill, a farm, restaurant, and organic coffee roaster.

She is pushing for wood stoves to be returned to homes of families that have had to fight to keep their power on through the winter.  She has begun to buy up used wind turbines and install them on farms on the reservation.  With a wry grin she notes: “Have you noticed that Indian land has some of the highest winds around?  I consider this an opportunity.”

In her spare time she has also started a school, day care, reintroduced sturgeon to a local lake, and received FCC approval for a radio station.

She observes that short term thinking seems to have produced as many problems as progress and that the Native cyclical worldview could be a huge gift in helping us reclaim a good life not defined by over-consumption.  The call, she says, is to make decisions with seven generations in mind rather than just the profits for the next quarter.  Think of it, she suggests as “positive window shopping for your future” and uses a very broad definition of ‘your’ future to include your children and your children’s children and your children’s children’s children out to the seventh generation.

Two of the top growth industries in our country right now are waste management and prison system.  Both suggest we are currently living in a throw away culture where both things and people are tossed aside when broken.  It is so common now to hear the phrase: “Just throw it away.”  LaDuke asks the question: “Where is ‘away’?”

Thanks Winona for challenging me to think.  I grew up on a reservation too, and was only too happy to leave.  I may need to go back and learn a few things.