Living the Scientific Life (Scientist, Interrupted)

Good News, My Peeps!

Posted by "GrrlScientist" on February 17, 2008
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Peering out of the windows of my new hang-out, a coffee shop that
just opened in my neighborhood. Guess who is going to get ALL of
my disposable income from now on?

GrrlScientist 2008 [larger view].

I think I mentioned to you a few months ago (in November to be precise) that three banks opened in my neighborhood within one week of each other — the first banks I’ve seen within 10 blocks of my apartment. This was really good, since one of those bank branches is mine (not that I have any money to speak of, except for the minimum necessary to allow me to cash checks written by my pet care clients). But that was simply the harbinger of better things to come because I have been watching a store on the corner which was being set up as a coffee shop — IN MY NEIGHBORHOOD! Wow, ain’t gentrification grand? Anyway, it just opened and I am sitting in this coffee shop at this precise moment, and have learned that they have free wifi — not even starbux offers that — and my coffee shop also has wonderful coffee (yes, in NYC! Shocking, isn’t it?) and it is cheaper than starbux coffee, too. They also have yummy cookies and they even have a menu .. an odd menu, to be sure (pancakes for dinner? oh well, whatever. Pancakes are comfort food for some people). So I am sitting here on a tall stool in front of the huge windows, looking east over my ‘hood at the gathering clouds, and having a great time! I mean, the only thing I could ask for at this moment in time is either a panda bear, or a man who likes hugs from time to time, and who reads lots of books or newspapers so I can write my blog in peace between hugs.

UPDATE: Oh, my gawd, the good news keeps getting better. I just learned that this coffee shop is open 24 hours per day, seven days per week! Be still, my beating heart, before I have a joy-triggered heart attack! But I noticed that they do not have a bathroom, and was ready to feel bad about that, when I realized that this place is located next door to a McDonald’s. *Whew* problem averted. I am back to being blissfully happy again.

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Comments

  1. #1 Coturnix
    February 17, 2008

    Next time I’m in NYC, I need to come to your new coffee shop! I’ll have pancakes, of course!

  2. #2 blf
    February 17, 2008

    they do not have a bathroom

    You are allowed to prepare and server food in NYC in premises which lacking toilets?!? Doesn’t the USA or NYC have any sort of health and sanitation laws? That’s fecking insane!

  3. #3 R N B
    February 17, 2008

    How long till McD’s start charging you for “rest breaks”?

  4. #4 "GrrlScientist"
    February 17, 2008

    blf; well, i suppose they are trying to discourage people like me from pitching a tent in their dining room, but i am not sure about this. i think i could still make a fort under a table.

    oh, and i think they have a bathroom downstairs, where only the employees can go.

    R N B: never, i hope!

  5. #5 Chris' Wills
    February 17, 2008

    About the pancakes; do they make savoury ones that might explain the lunchtime pancakes.

    There is (or used to be) a very nice crepery (place that sells crepes) in Glasgow that made savoury and sweet, and they’re just thin pancakes.

    Could be interesting watching an area go upmarket, preferable to living in one on the way down.

  6. #6 Diana
    February 17, 2008

    Hey Grrl, That’s shade-grown, organic etc etc in your cup there, right?

  7. #7 MikeG
    February 18, 2008

    There’s nothing with pancakes for dinner. As long as there’s some bacon or sausage, or even eggs. (A hypoglycemic weirdo needs his protein.)

  8. #8 Michelle Crowbars
    February 18, 2008

    Supposedly Sbux is going to be switching their wifi from T-Mobile to some other service, and it might be free after the switch. I haven’t heard for sure.

    I would really love for an independent 24hr coffee shop to open in my neighborhood, but all we have are Sbux, Cup O Joe, and Caribou. The only independent 24hr place around here is more of a donut shop/gyro joint than a coffee house (good house brew, but no espresso bar), and it is usually full of drunk undergrads from 11pm-3am, and pretentious undergrads the rest of the hours of the day. I guess that’s what I get for living so close to the university.

    I could use a nice, quiet place to study right about now.

  9. #9 "GrrlScientist"
    February 18, 2008

    this coffee shop serves seattle’s best coffee, so it is affiliated with starbux, somehow (i. e.; it ain’t independent). i know, for example, that starbux trained their baristas, all of whom are very good.

    i know that some SBC is shade-grown organic, but i somehow doubt that the coffee in my cup is shade-grown pesticide free organic, much as i wish it was. i should ask to see if they will have that available. to my credit, though, i use soy milk, not cow’s milk, so at least i am leaving a smaller carbon footprint in that way.

    we do have a donut shop here, but they are not open all the time, and worse, their coffee sux. icky.

    and this coffee shop isn’t very quiet, although i don’t mind that. right now, it’s rather loud because they have the TV on to Larry King, but that’s alright. i finally have seen michelle obama on TV, after listening to her for a year or so on the radio.

  10. #10 blf
    February 18, 2008

    Yea, I’ve heard of the strategy of denying customers access to the toilets in an effort to get them to “move along”, but at least in some parts of the world, that’s either illegal or considered discourteous. In any case, if you become a frequent/known/trusted and friendly customer, I’d imagine they’d let use the toilets. (Allowing non-customers to use the toilets is a rather different matter.)

    W.r.t. camping there, that I can understand. I must admit I myself can be a coffeeshopcamper, but I’ve usually found myself living in places where that’s accepted. For instance, I’m currently in France, and spending all afternoon in a café is considered quite acceptable. (At least in the traditional cafés; chains like Starbucks–there’s at least one in Paris but fortunately that’s the only place I’ve seen one–might have a different view of the matter.)

  11. #11 Don Thieme
    February 18, 2008

    That looks like my kind of coffee shop. I have never been a fan of Starbucks. I actually like coffee roasted a bit lighter than they do it, although they buy great beans. I like Seattle’s Best much better, but I did not realize they had combined forces.

    I was spoiled by the free wifi available in Athens, Georgia. They somehow wired that whole downtown!

  12. #12 David Harmon
    February 18, 2008

    Way cool! Happy hanging!

  13. #13 Jeanette
    February 18, 2008

    Sounds like a good cafe to hang out, work on computer/blog, people-watch, dream of snuggly hugs from a loving sexy book-reading/writing man, sip on hot delicious coffee (cream and sugar?), and, very importantly, sneak off to the nearby McDonald’s when needed for the restrooms…!

    I’m highly educated and don’t have any money either so don’t feel bad about that aspect.

    Also, if CNN is on there at the cafe (if you don’t have home tv), watch the Barack Obama/Hillary Clinton debate at 8:00 pm ET on Feb. 21, this Thursday. It’s being broadcast from here in Austin at University of Texas campus. Only big-wig politicos and smug UT administrators and just a mere hundred “common folks or students” will be able to attend the nationally televised debate though–I guess the rest of us will just have to stay at home or sit in cafes or other hangouts to cheer our beloved publicly-elected candidates on (but without being able to attend or ask questions…) that night here in Austin. (What happened to the candidates and the Democratic party being “by the common people for the common people”…?) I vote Independent and am leaning towards Hillary but maybe Obama, not sure yet.

    Anyway, watch it if you can, enjoy the new cafe, and wishing you a wonderful week ahead!

    Jeanette

  14. #14 Jeanette
    February 18, 2008

    Hey Devorah, If you do get a chance to watch the Obama/Clinton debate on CNN this Thursday (8:00pm ET/7:00pm CT), here’s an article that might be of interest:

    A Texas Tiff Over the Dems Debate

    http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20080215/us_time/atexastiffoverthedemsdebate

  15. #15 Tricia
    February 18, 2008

    I’m so very glad to hear that you have a great coffee shop with free wifi 24 hours/day. I wish I lived close enough to join you. Enjoy!