Recalling my cafe days and a personal search for that elusive awe inspiring cup. (of coffee) - Tuesday, September 23rd

What is this blog post about?
It's about the amount of time I wasted in cafes trying to write a masterpiece.
Who cares, it was worth it. Truthfully, I spent the last decade of the 21st century and a small part of this 22nd century wasting time and money procrastinating in cafes all the way from Portland, OR to the Hawaiian islands, and then overseas in places like Hong Kong, New York, London and Paris. I'm not trying to sound like a Gucci tag but I was on the move, cooking and looking for that elusive cup. Fast forward to the present and this past weekend when I had a deja vu moment from my cafe daze.
After a busy day at the farmer's market on Saturday I zoomed off to Stratford, Ontario for dinner with good friends and Hamlet. Now this morning Kath and I are so lucky to hit cafe Balzac, a Stratford favorite. The cafe has this hard edge metropolitan feel, and tastefully done antique coffee stuff including an old Probat half bag roaster which they actually use to roast all their beans. It's not uncommon to see men in beret spouting politics or pontificating on the state of Canadian theater in this place.
I was looking forward to the forgotten sensation of sipping coffee on a lazy Sunday morning while writing in my journal, only to be let down. Even though they roast their own beans, the Mocha-Java brew tasted like hot water brewed from charcoal. They're simply taking it too dark.
But who cares? The atmosphere at Balzac is awesome and I'm on holiday! It also helped me recall my preferred choice for these circumstances: double espresso pulled long for that great cup of coffee. (I should have pulled out the Areo Press!) The espresso at Balzac is great and when in Stratford this cafe is a must!
See you at the Market on Wednesday.
Your Faithful Roaster
Roos

Posted by John at 7:59pm 09/23/08