Why Good Coffee Shops Will Never Go Out of Style

Wasn’t it Lana Turner who was discovered in a coffee shop?

When you hear the words “coffee shop” what do you think of?  The first thing that came to mind should NOT be a big corporate owned conglomerate.

I think of a small place, cozy, with great pie and cake.  Coffee in heavy ironstone mugs (or whatever they call it), and someone who knows that I like a dollop of unsweetned whipped cream on the top of my coffee to stir in with just a pinch of Stevia.

I think of  Katherine Hepburne and Bogey, Doris Day and Rock Hudson.  Coffee shops belong to small neighborhoods whether they are in big cities or po-dunk towns in the middle of a cornfield.  A great coffee shop is an entity unto itself.

When people got hooked on Starbucks at $3 dollars a pop (they don;t call it star-bucks for nothin’) they missed the point.  When Starbucks started selling protien shakes THEY missed the point.

A coffee shop has never been about the coffee.  It’s about the smell, the atmosphere, the camaraderie, and the pie.

Scones, lemon bars, and muffins are great for tea rooms but a coffee shop without a thick slice of homemade pie, warm from the oven with thick fruit syrup bubbling out the top…well that isn’t a coffee shop at all.  A coffee shop should be a haven in an unexpected thunderstorm, a dry mecca where your next adventure awaits.

A good coffee shop will remind you of Cheers, Mel’s Diner, and the scene from When Harry Met Sally all at once.

If you find one don’t go anywhere else.  It is a treasure that could easily go the way of gas station attendants and real diners with blue vinyl swivel seats.

Made ya smile just thinking about it, didn’t it?

image:SXC