It would be foolish to take space in this forum to decry the homogenizing effect on world culture that corporate retailers have. In fact, this entire project is in a sense a repository of the twists, discrepancies, extremes, both positive and negative, that independently owned coffeeshops provide us with. This repository exists to […]

I wondered which came first, the self-consciously selected alternative soundtrack or the edgy, quirky little shops on Ferndale’s downtown strip. Certainly my guess is that American Pop (I imagine it probably takes several years for caramel corn to turn black when it is left sitting out) and Record Collector (home of the 20% discount […]

I had hoped to introduce thos. more to Monmouth Coffee Company during a London business sojourn in December 2006, but my plans were thwarted by the fact that this café keeps rather inconvenient business hours. I suppose opening at 8 am is a reasonable business strategy; closing at 6:30 pm, on the other hand, is […]

I wish this place were called ‘Angles in my Kitchen’, or ‘Angels in my Emissions’. As it is, I can barely stomach writing about anything that purports to involve angels. If there truly are angels in this café’s kitchen, I hope they are at least sanitary, vegetarian, and somewhat interested in good coffee. I don’t […]

Holy fucking shit! We forgot all about Joe! The day that I took Ashley on a tour of West Philadelphia before his paper on “The Pitt”, we stopped at Green Line so he could evacuate a bit of diarrhea and order a few rounds of French Roast.
While Ashley was chatting […]

Ever since I was exiled to the continent (and, currently, to the ‘sub’-continent) nearly six months ago, I have been at a loss to find cafes that fall within the narrow guidelines deemed appropriate for tableaux by some of my colleagues on this site. So what is one to do if soymilk and vegan cookies […]

If I had to walk another 50 yards in my heavy trenchcoat and longjohns carrying my 30 pound pack, I would not have made it. Although the promise of hot black joe did not seem to be an antidote to the unseasonable heat and the sun which pummeled the back of my neck, it […]