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I’d like to thank everyone in this coffee shop

01.13.2018

I’d like to thank everyone in the coffee shop, everyone who did the right thing today. It took the whole team, I know, to make sure that Acacia and I could sit at this big table. Usually we end up squeezing into the corner, or knocking people over for space at the communal table. But this time, when we really need it, we’re sitting at this properly sized table.

Guy with your iPhone and nothing else – I know you usually like to sit at this table, and play noisy games by yourself, and not even move when there are three tiny, one-person tables open all around you, and we are looking desperately (not to mention obviously) around for adequate space to sit. But today you’re at the big, communal table and I’m grateful. I’m even a bit (I hope you don’t mind me saying this) proud, here today.

Med students who aren’t even going to buy anything but are gonna take up most of the space all day – thank you for using the medium-sized, square tables. They’re here just for you. They’re the perfect size for your big textbooks. I know you relish spreading your stuff all over your un-bought space, but today you have constrained yourself. Today you are not disrupting the ecology and economy of the coffee shop and that’s just so wonderful to see. Thank you.

And last but not least, you – young, angry man with a laptop. I feel your pain, I truly do. It’s awkward to sit there with the two soccer moms having incredibly loud conversation less than two feet from your face. On on your other side is one of those med students, whose music we can all hear blasting through his earbuds. But you gritted your teeth, you plugged in your giant headphones, and you’re getting work done anyway. And over here, at this mesa that is just the right size to hold my wife and I and our coffee shop related belongings, (even if I decide to open this big board game rulebook, which I brought just in case I get my work done) over here we are content. We are at peace. Today we will not struggle. This table doesn’t even have a wobble. It’s an incredible table, and we thank you for it.

Maybe everything really is gonna be okay. Maybe just maybe.

Filed Under: misc Tagged With: coffee, gratitude

Dancing at Joe (the art of coffee)

04.08.2012


photo by me.

Filed Under: images Tagged With: coffee

What We did in New York This Weekend

06.14.2010


[Read more…]

Filed Under: Etc. Tagged With: coffee, Food Matters, Megabus, NYC, theatre

Philly to BK

01.27.2010

Imade my way out of Philly on Sunday. Hallelujah. (Not that I have anything against Philly, but things have gotten pretty stressful there.) I headed to Brooklyn to visit my brother, Stephen. Took some photos on the way.

Chapterhouse again … (still in Philly)

Monday morning was raining buckets, but that didn’t stop the coffee-quest. I dropped into D’Amico Foods for some freshly roasted beans and a bagel, before settling into the decidedly Frenchy Cafe Pedlar. You know they’re serious because of the bags of Stumptown Beans (roasted just a couple of days previous) for sale at the counter.

Cafe Pedlar in Red Hook …
[Read more…]

Filed Under: Etc. Tagged With: coffee, Joe Papp, latte art, Statue of Liberty

Philadelphia: Some bright spots

01.24.2010

Everyday I walk by this mural, which reminds me of Ezra Jack Keats.


[Read more…]

Filed Under: Comics, Etc., Food Matters Tagged With: coffee, lettuce, whole foods

Getting to Know Philly a lil Bit

01.20.2010

But just a little bit.

The first time I visited Philadelphia, I couldn’t make heads or tails of it. (Actually, it was the second time I’d been here, but I was only 12 years old for the first trip, and all I remember is the homeless man sleeping on the sidewalk as people walked over and around him. I have no idea what part of town we visited, we didn’t even see the Liberty Bell up close, as far as I recall.)

We were visiting a dear friend, and though she took us to nice places (including a coffee shop we now pass everyday) it was the dead of a very bitter winter, and no one was on the streets, and it just looked like a desolate kind of urban wasteland. Despite my best efforts, I was not impressed.

Well, this time around it’s quite different. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Comics, Etc., theatre Tagged With: coffee, comic shops, minx, Paul Hornschemeier, Philadelphia

A Great Time in My Life

01.14.2010

This is a great time in my life. Isn’t it? Let’s count the ways.

1. I’m in Philadelphia, actually getting paid decent money to direct a show I really, deeply care about (Killadelphia). And while I’m here, Sean Lewis and I are sharing a 3-story house in downtown Philly. (Right by the Italian Market.)
[Read more…]

Filed Under: Etc., theatre Tagged With: coffee, Jane Austen, Philadelphia, Pride and Prejudice

Lovely on Milwaukee

07.18.2009

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image1622935901.jpg

This place is great.

I’m in Chicago for the PItchfork Festival (and blogging about it here.

I’m currently at Lovely – A Bakeshop. I’m eating a buttermilk raisin scone (Not sane, right?) and drinking a frothy mochacinno. This place has just about everything I look for in a coffee shop: a great variety of seating, plenty of space, friendly service, interesting decor, just a touch of food, good location (it’s about 4 doors down from where we’re staying), and good music (currently a lite mix of the happier side of mid-80s synth-pop).

And now here’s the story of why I’m an idiot and Yelp is sometimes no help at all.

I looked-up nearby coffee places on Yelp last night (on the iphone) and it directed me to the Ark, just 4 blocks away. So, this morning I got up, showered, made a plan with Accacia, and hit the street. I stopped at a bank first, and then proceeded to not turn on Division like I was supposed to. I don’t remember what deep thoughts had me so distracted, but I just kept marching down Milwaukee, and didn’t realize it until I’d gone about 4 blocks and started wondering where the Ark was. Urgh.

So, I took a corner through some apartment complexes, and walked up 3 blocks to the corner of Division and Noble, only to discover that the Ark is closed. Paper over the windows, with the word “closed” spray-painted on the front door. Ya gotta be kidding me, right?

Okay, so I google coffee and discover a Starbucks a couple blocks past the apartment on Division. Okay, that’s a sure thing, at least. But what’s Lovely? I’ll be it’s closed. Reverse path, back through the apartments, up Milwaukee and lo and behold Lovely does exist. It’s big, and beautiful, and just about 40 steps from where I started this little Saturday-morning odyssey.

At least I’m happy to be here. It feels like I earned it.

Filed Under: Etc. Tagged With: Chicago, coffee

NEW joetheart

05.01.2009

image383819228.jpgMan, this makes me so happy!

I know, I’m totally ridiculous.

Mobile Blogging from here.

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

Filed Under: Etc., Food Matters Tagged With: coffee

joejoejoe

04.30.2009

image729373984.jpg

Mobile Blogging from here.

Oh sososo happy.


[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

Filed Under: Etc. Tagged With: coffee

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