On occasion, Fat City is written from the hallowed tables of coffee shops across the city and over the past several weeks, it's become apparent to me that everything but coffee seems to be going out the door.
Take for example a recent lunch hour I spent at Coffee Girls in Waldo -- here's a sample of the orders that I overheard at the counter: Toddy coffee (my order); double shot of espresso; a water; umm ... a Diet Coke; steamed skim milk and decaf coffee; hot tea. Not a single cup of unadulterated coffee was ordered by the crowd. Granted, the small sample population was likely between the ages of 18 and 40 and this was well after the standard morning rush.
It makes me wonder: Should we start referring to coffee shops as beverage shops -- sort of a higher-end version of the wall of drinks at a QuikTrip? It's fairly standard practice now for coffee shops to carry a frozen drink along the lines of QT's Freezoni series (although I haven't seen a coffee shop with a hot dog roller yet; such an establishment could make a very strong case for my regular business).
Outside of the sodas and tea orders, most of the drinks still have coffee beans as one of the base ingredients, even if it feels like drinkers are doing their best to change the taste via milk, sugar and syrup. Coffee has become complicated -- it must make the life of a barista more interesting, though.
So, is it time that purists made a push for coffee to mean something again? Or is the world of blended drinks and coffee cocktails an improvement on the burnt cup of bottomless diner coffee?
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I generally only drink plain black coffee, but if I'm working in a coffee shop and going to be there for a while I always order something more complicated. I consider it "rent" for the time I spend there.
It still stands for me that if I'm having coffee by itself, its usually done with a donut, or a dessert of some kind. I stopped drinking coffee on a regular basis back when I was in college, and it was clear that my stomach was not going to put up with that habit for any decent amount of time. So the occassional coffee is all I order. Otherwise, I get my caffeine from iced tea or Diet Coke. (Although I have been known to have an iced coffee now and then in the summertime...)
I'm an anomaly these days because I drink plain ol' black coffee, but I look at it this way: the macchiato and latte crowd (and their money) allow for the proliferation of good coffee places. Let's be honest - people like me aren't exactly keeping Dunn Bros. and Broadway Cafe in business, but I'm sure glad they're there.
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