The bike ride was quick and effortless from the Wicker Park/UK Village proper. Having been to ‘the pig’ several times I knew what would be in store. But a floor to ceiling selection of loose tea neatly arranged in glass jars, siphons of selective Indonesian provinces. Culture just bottled in wait […]

I was very pleased when I learned that a new coffee shop was being installed right near my residence. Looking back, I’m not sure how I allowed my expectations to be raised so. Located on the left bank of the Schuylkill, along a major east-west artery leading into University City, Walnut Bridge Coffee House is […]

On what can be described without hyperbole as one of the five bleakest days of my life, I discovered Kaffa Crossing. I had just been released from 12 hours of hellish confinement aboard the Acela from Atlanta to discover that my luggage and bike had not been placed on the train and that I […]

For those of us who were raised in circa-1980s South Floridian suburbs, terms like ‘outdoor market’ and ‘riot’ were first met in air-conditioned portable classrooms in between lunch periods and awkward square dancing sessions, which now, upon reflection, seem aptly Reaganian. The ‘outdoors,’ first of all, were intolerable places we made all efforts to avoid, […]

Though I have entered Stellar during each of the four seasons, I always associate it with suffocation and heat. The space is confined and the music is unbearably loud and inappropriate for the notions of leisure with which coffee is typically consumed. Strobe lights and pyrotechnics would be more suited to the atmosphere […]

Although it conflicts with my personal policies for traveling, I researched in advance to find a coffeeshop to visit in the 3 morning hours that I was going to be in Bismarck before heading west to Teddy Roosevelt National Park. I settled upon Green Earth Cafe, said to be where the ‘artsy’ Bismarck crowd […]

Running late for a sketchy bike deal in central New Jersey, having been led by crooked directions along 20 miles of surface streets to the ‘Highway 30 U-Haul’ storage facility, which, when google-mapped, is neither in the town named by the seller, Amadeus, nor in the town mentioned in the name of the storage facility, […]

What are we at the crossroads of here, the cinematic aspect ratio of this tight little neighborhood as the sun goes down and the little plays begin, each in their own spotlight, pressures me to draw conclusions about the disconnects between characters and props in the city, yet all I can do is rub the […]

There is a nice phenomenon in some cities, it may be in all cities except Atlanta, but particularly I am thinking of Portland, OR and Seattle, WA, where small intersections deep within residential districts swell slightly with a commercial hub. In the pleasant iterations I have encountered they both contained coffeeshops and ideosyncratic eating […]

I am completely aware that one of the policies of Cafe Tableaux is to not review establishments whose sole focus is to serve food. I am also aware that many of these policies are potentially dooming the site to failure, although not that rule in particular, so I am using an executive privilege to […]

As an ‘architect’ I regularly struggle with my fluctuating attention to the specificity of designed environments. I realize that every manmade condition is ‘designed,’ and so are many so-called natural settings. The way in which my attentions shift are as follows. Certain conditions exist in such a way that they trumpet the […]

As a lad I grew up at the beach, on a barrier island astride the Atlantic Ocean along Central Florida. All the memories of my childhood are infused at some level with blinding white sun, the smell of salted air, flat topography, and a sense of ease that comes with the slow pace of […]