The greatest city on Earth

I had an awesome weekend in NY with one of my closest and oldest friends, the Great White. He is like my honorary puerto rican cousin even though he is a good foot taller, paler and blonder.
It is contagious, the energy out there with the growing coffee scene. Everyone is so stoked to be part of it, and the sense of family is unbelievable. Everyone supports each other, and there is a sense that you are all in it together. It’s great, and the only way things would work in New York.
Grumpy has certainly set the standards high for any future coffee shops. I am impressed with the execution, considering this is the first go at a coffee business. Gimme! as always, the true neighborhood shop. You walk in there and you feel like you are at your buddy’s place. No pressure of rushing, friendly chatter, no snot faced baristas, no attitude…just a friendly atmosphere and real espresso. The whole experience was great. Just the right balance of coffee geekdom, good food and great company. it wasn’t overwhleming at all. For NY it was a great pace.
DISCLAIMER: This blog is my personal thing by the way. I don’t want people thinking this personal coffee blog reflects the feelings of my employers and I definitely DO NOT use it to promote them either. I know people will take it and twist it however they want, but this is my own shit and no one else’s.

So, with that said, I wanted to say this…I was amazed at how much my palate was adapted to the pacific northwest standard of coffee. i was pleasantly surprised when i had some of gimme!’s Leftist espresso. Deep, round, heavy steak-y kind of espresso. It was awesome. Totally different from the Ecco Reserve and from my trusted and much beloved Hair Bender. (maybe not trusted since sometimes for me it is hard to tame it, which is a HUGE part of the charm). It is just amazing to have the opportunity to taste the differences and in turn to train the palate in such a way that one can always appreciate the differences with out forming a biased alliance to any one thing. If NY could become a place where every major/important/amazing coffee in the US is represented…holy shit. I can’t even go there.
Oh, and I did get a chance to visit Danger Dan at Cafe Collage. TIGHT.
The transparency in the community out there is inspiring. Like Glanville said, it’s exciting and for me contagious. There are no pictures because I am so hardcore i actually took FILM pictures with my Pentax MANUAL SLR. I will throw some up when I develop and scan them….just you wait.

~ by Me on December 6, 2006.