Coffee Drama

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2009479123_starbucks16.html

Apparently Starbucks is opening new stores in Seattle without their logo on it; they’ll instead be named after the neighborhood they are on (the first one is 15th Ave Coffee) and look like local coffee shops.

Starbucks employees have been going into real local shops in the area to walk around and take notes, without buying anything of course. This is so sneaky and screwed up I don’t even know. It’s so cynical, too; does Starbucks really think that people who don’t patronize their business because they are a big souless corporation will be fooled into coming into these stores? Who knows, maybe they will, but I would be pissed if I found out a new café I found was really a Starbucks in disguise. It’s a bad enough company as is, but now they can’t even be honest about it; its fucking infuriating.



In other coffee shop douchebaggery, evidently there is a new one opening in Tucson by a couple people from Seattle. Their reason for opening here is because Tucson coffee culture is lacking and they are going to "up the game."

What?

Just in the area they are opening there are three local coffee shops nearby; CoffeeXchange (which admittedly is not my favorite), Raging Sage and Bentley’s (my café!). Both the last two are excellent; the only problem with Raging Sage is that it closes pretty early, but you cannot say their coffee is not high quality if you have ever bothered to try it. Seriously, it seems pretty shitty to come into a city and start off by insulting it.

White River Junction

I had today off so I decided to take a bike ride to White River Junction, a small town in Vermont where the Amtrak stopped on the way here. I thought it had a cool name, and it looked cute driving through so I've been meaning to go explore it at some point. It was around 17 miles there and back, it was a pretty good ride except part of it was on the highway through another city with no shoulder or bike lane, so it was a little scary, though I suppose not too much worse than DC sometimes. It felt really good getting back. I wondered around the town a little then got something to eat in this cute cafe by the railroad station before heading back.

Turner's cafe

At one point I walked past three 17 or18 year old girls. One whistled at me as I went by, and when I looked back yelled "syke!" I was not quite expecting that. Otherwise nothing too interesting happened, but it was pretty, and right by the river and railroads, both things I quite like.

So, on somewhat of an impulse I decided to start a blog. Given how little I update my livejournal I am not too sure how successful this will be, but we shall see