High Class Latte

I’m deep in Hanna. The winds are blowing east and west. Buckets of rain flood streets and shoes. Humidity is down from what it was bruited to be earlier as 93%.   I’ve gotten all dressed up with the coffee shop as my destination. It’s just a block down the way and instead of letting my feet become one with the pavement and the accumulating inches of rain, I throw on my 4-year-old green rain shoes. I feel creative and happy.

Within 5 minutes I arrive at the café. I see the lights inside. I pull my umbrella close to me and snap it shut. I shake it like a dog would itself after running through a fire hydrant. I enter in and feel home. It’s the kind of home feeling of just arriving where I should be after a long absence. Wasn’t I just here last night close to midnight I ask myself. Yes! Still I feel “what took me so long”; I feel “I wish I had more time”. I go through this emotion all because I realize I’d wish I came earlier knowing that in just another hour or so I’ll be leaving.

For now, I’ll choose to enjoy the space. It’s dimly lit, but really, could you imagine a coffee house anything but affected lighting. Besides, the sun -which never came out today – has already decide to shine on the other side of the world.

 I walk up to the counter and order a soy latte from an attentive barista wearing a black cap and a pair of eye glasses. He has a grown beard and is dressed in a t-shirt, jeans and Asics tennis shoes. A rag the length of a hand towel dangles out of his back pocket.  It’s quickly become my ritual to loiter here.  my Being here makes it easy to slip into a coffee addiction I kicked about 5 years ago. But, I can’t come here work without patronizing, it just wouldn’t be right. So, without guilt, I ask for that latte to have extra milk.  The barista assures me that’s how the usually make it – soy milk, coffee and then a little more milk poured on top. Very well…and I resign myself to the fact that he knows what he is doing. Once it comes to me – multi-sized ices on the top – it looks like it’s done right. I’ve come to learn that by taste done right means there’s more  soy milk than coffee. He charges me $3.25, less than last night’s price of $4.00. Hmmm…. I now began to wonder about that. However, I came in one night last week about 20 minutes to closing and it was only $2.00. Perhaps, the price changes like the weather or by the customer. Hey, hey this isn’t my next door coffee shop so I guess I can pay full price for something.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not trying to be frugal when I come here. I like what my money buys when I come here.  Let me share with you what the space is like here. There are multiple options for seating; I can sit at a two-chaired table, on a recliner, on a stool with a long angular table bar facing the street and brownstones, a corner where there are 3 couches and feel sequestered and comfortable; at a bigger island where there are multiple stools and be reminded at intervals of discomfort that I need to sit erect. So many options!   These options make paying full price for my latte quite alright.

Tonight, there’s cheese and wine laid out for everyone. I’m not sure if this is their habit or if there is something happening here. Soon, the smell of ordered wine sipped in cute glasses overtakes the aroma of coffee beans. I don’t mind.  Whichever, this is no ordinary café. I’m cool with that. Now, I have somewhere to come and sip a high class latte. I’m glad I’m all dressed up with the coffee shop as my somewhere to go.

cde