This image was taken on Market Street and shows the rear outside dining area of a recently opened restaurant. Before it changed hands, it used to be one of my favorite coffee hangouts, especially during the winter months. The sound of the coffee maker perking away downstairs in the kitchen was always a welcoming sign each morning. Mom usually had a cup in hand, as she attempted to get us youngins fed and off to school. I enjoyed the aroma, hated the taste. I actually can trace my first cup back to the kitchen table at my friend Tom's house, somewhere around junior year of high school. As I remember, it was freezed-dried with artificial creamer and bitter to the taste. My other pals around the table were seasoned vets in the java world, but there I sipped my virginal cup. Today, I take mine perked, mild, black and in multiple versions. I've come a ways from that tan formica kitchen table and that first cup of Sanka. Sometimes we move in straight shots, sometimes winding paths.
Thursday, August 4, 2011
Backside
This image was taken on Market Street and shows the rear outside dining area of a recently opened restaurant. Before it changed hands, it used to be one of my favorite coffee hangouts, especially during the winter months. The sound of the coffee maker perking away downstairs in the kitchen was always a welcoming sign each morning. Mom usually had a cup in hand, as she attempted to get us youngins fed and off to school. I enjoyed the aroma, hated the taste. I actually can trace my first cup back to the kitchen table at my friend Tom's house, somewhere around junior year of high school. As I remember, it was freezed-dried with artificial creamer and bitter to the taste. My other pals around the table were seasoned vets in the java world, but there I sipped my virginal cup. Today, I take mine perked, mild, black and in multiple versions. I've come a ways from that tan formica kitchen table and that first cup of Sanka. Sometimes we move in straight shots, sometimes winding paths.
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Nice scene and nice story! :)
ReplyDeletela traduction pour moi (et encore pire avec google) n'est pas facile, mon anglais est vraiment tres "BAD". Belle photo d'une terrasse d'un cafe
ReplyDeleteLooks like a fine place to fix some hunger pains and thirst for coffee!
ReplyDeleteCheerio Birdman
A beautiful story again.
ReplyDeleteAnd a photograph to go with it.
Like the cream in the coffee..
Costas
Nice post and I really like the look of this building. No coffee for me, I would drive my co-workers nuts.
ReplyDeleteI think you should try Brazilian coffee,or better Italian one, like "expresso", it's strong and I can't start my day without some coffee! :)
ReplyDeleteBeautiful story, thanks for sharing!
Léia
That wall on the right is fabulous. I think I'd love it there, too. Especially if there was coffee :D
ReplyDeletei just love the way you write! i used to drink hot tea with milk and sugar as a teen, hated coffee. then after my husband got out of the marine corps and we moved back to our hometown, i got a job at a mercedes dealership. i was in my early 20's and the older women in the office were big on coffee and i remember only being able to drink one of those small styrofoam cups (with a lot of cream/sugar) and much more than would give me the shakes. i finally graduated up to my own coffee mug. we even ended up getting a grinder and grinding our own beans in the office! now i have to start my day with a few cups, it's just the whole routine of it!
ReplyDeleteI always loved the smell of coffee but did not drink it at all until many years later. I enjoy good coffee now in many varieties and origins.
ReplyDeleteThe textures and patterns of this scene are captivating. The memories of your family kitchen are even more so.
Bises,
Genie
You got me thinking (again!!) Birdman, I really can't remember when, seem to have been drinking coffee forever! I so wish I could drink it black and sugarless, but no such luck, milk and three (quel horreur!) sugars!!
ReplyDeleteI love the smell of coffee and still to this day, hate the taste. I don't even like coffee ice cream. It's a strange thing that I never acquired the taste for it, especially when I have a very strong love of chocolate. Who knows.
ReplyDeleteIndeed. Very nicely said. I too, remember my first cup, or sip, actually. Must have been about 5 years old and I thought, "You've got to be kidding."
ReplyDeleteGood Morning, I never drank coffee until I was about 45 yrs old.... My mother loved coffee --and she told me that I'd love it once I went to college. Didn't happen!!!
ReplyDeleteNow I love my coffee (of course with creamer and splenda)... I recently went caffeine-free ---and that wasn't as easy as I thought it would be. Guess I'm healthier though... ha
Betsy
Coffee (espresso) is a very different thing here: you rarely mix it to something else and the purists use no sugar either. Cappuccino is only for the morning, nobody would get the thing in the afternoon, if not ill.
ReplyDeletewe had the old percolator pot at my parents' place too. loved that soft gurgle and purr as it sighed its way to a fresh pot. i've drunk coffee with a bit of milk in it since i was a little girl. :)
ReplyDeleteI cannot remember my first cup of coffee. I grew up with tea drinkers. But I drink coffee now so there must have been a first cup, eh?
ReplyDeleteand our tastes are formed, yeah or nay, by those early experiences, aren't they?
ReplyDeleteThis looks like a wonderful place to savor a cup of coffee (or two). Now that it is transformed into a restaurant, I hope it remains available for lingering. I don't really remember my coffee history, other than that it began with cream and two sugars and has been trimmed over the years to black. As much as anything, getting a cup gave me an excuse to get out of my office and clear my head. Today it gives me an excuse to meet buddies and chew the fat.
ReplyDeleteIt's a beautiful picture and you have such wonderful memories. Thanks for sharing them!
ReplyDeleteI would like to be sitting under one of these umbrellas enjoying a cup myself.
ReplyDeleteLooks like my kind of place.
ReplyDeleteI love the look of this outdoors cafe. I remember my first cup of coffee with my boyfriend at a pancake house. I tried it with cream and sugar and still take it that way, but now I use 1% milk and stevia...
ReplyDeleteI think you and Kitty are neck and neck as my favorite blog writers. You're photos are grand too. IT's not fair to be that talented Bird.
ReplyDeleteV
Nice. Didn't start until my early 30's .... even with a coffe pot on all the time while living at home.
ReplyDelete