It was the age of smooth, fresh java, and it was the age of old coffee grinds.
It was the epoch of belief in something
It was the epoch of incredulity of what yout go.
It was the season of light, well prepared beans.
It was the season of dark, sour rough Americanos.
It was Bubby Rose's Cafe.
It was the Cornerstone Cafe.
In the Cook Street area, we have the well respected Bubby Rose's Bakery Cafe. Friends of mine rate their bread and bread product very highly. While the egg salad sandwich I had there probably didn't do the bread justice, the coffee was excellent. Smooth and well (but not over) roasted, prepared well just to get that punch of a caffiene you want, but not so fast and furious your conversations turn into mad gabbled words. And when one sits down to Coffee with Andrea, one needs to have your wits, least you be found wanting.
The cafe is just a few steps away from Fort Street's antique row. A a few blocks from Cook Street Village. But close enough if you know where it is, and friendly enough it's worth the visit on a sunny day for a slow coffee on their street front seating. I also like the dresser which hides the milk, cream and sugar.
Fernwood. Once the low rent area of Victoria, or so people tell me. Full of young people renting small garrets from landlords who barely kept their places free from the rain and snow. At least thats the tale I've been told. I have no idea, I've not lived in Victoria when Fernwood gained a reputation, that I am sure is undeserved. Now, it has the Fernwood Inn, Stages, two hugely active resident's associations and the Cornerstone Cafe, a hub for community arts. A real coffee shop serving the locals, providing space for someone outside to do tarot readings for their friends, and inside for one eccentric old boy to take a nap between the frantic scrawls he's sketching out.
On that score, it's a great place. I've been down for an open mike night in the past, and a Elvis themed night, where people sang or talked about the icon. Arts and culture on the low, easy going scale. Brilliant, except their coffee was terrible when I went in again this past weekend. Dark, rough and tasting like it was made with grounds recycled, or over used. It was nasty.
Still, I got to sit outside again, in the sun, and have a pleasant conversation with the aforementioned Andrea. She likes to be mentioned, so I did it twice. Hopefully this means she'll link back to me now...
The coffee crawl will probably return this summer... so any suggestions to try out that I've not been to before, fire it away.
No comments:
Post a Comment