Coffee-shop Etiquette

So I had an interesting conversation with my father a few weeks ago. He had told me that sometimes he goes and gets a donut and then takes it too the coffeeshop to drink with his coffee. Now this particular coffeeshop has pastries but not donuts. There is a company in Salem called Great Harvest that does some really amazing breads and scones and muffins and cookies and they supply this coffeeshop with those tasty treats but they do not make donuts.

I told my dad that I didn't think it was correct to bring your own treats to a place that already has treats for you to purchase. I do not know store policy on this but it just feels wrong to me. Well today as I was beginning my morning job search and enjoying my super tasty Americano, I noticed a fellow come in wearing a suit and carrying a cup of Starbucks. Now, the perceived quality of Starbucks coffee aside, it really seemed like the wrong thing to me to carry in another companies coffee to drink in a coffeeshop that makes a totally different brand of coffee. I just do not understand why someone would do that.

To me it is like taking my Big Mac to Burger King. Who does that? Why would you do that? Are you that clueless about things? It just makes no sense to me. It probably bothers me more because of how much I love Broadway Coffeehouse  but I also know myself enough to know that if I was in another restaurant and the same thing happened I would be taken aback by it. It seems a real lack of common sense to me to not drink or eat from the place that you are meeting. They are kind enough to provide you a location and sometimes free wireless and other things. The least you can do is too purchase something from them. Because if you continue to not purchase things then it is quite possible that the place could go out of business and no one wants that.

So in closing please continue to patronize your local businesses and support your community. If you are in Salem then by all means give the Broadway Coffeehouse a try. If you like coffee you will not regret it. They serve Stumptown exclusively and that, my friends, is good coffee.

(Puts soapbox away) 

Broadway Coffeehouse

As I mentioned yesterday and may have mentioned before on this blog. I like coffee. Some would say that I also have a chemical dependency on the caffeine that rides along with the coffee. I would say that has nothing to do with the fact that I like the smell and the taste of it. Sure, things would be horrible if I didn't enjoy drinking it but I really do like the taste of coffee and I love the smell and the process of it as well.


And thanks to the friendly folks at my local coffee house. The aptly named Broadway Coffeehouse since it is on Broadway st. I have found several new ways to take in my daily dose of the good stuff.

What I have pictured above is how I spent last Saturday morning. It was a nice Chemex of an Indonesian coffee along with the morning paper and a very tasty Marionberry scone from Great Harvest.

I personally can't think of a better way to start the day then to have a tasty cup of coffee and a nice pastry of some sort. One way for me to get both of those things is at the Broadway Coffeehouse and I just am unable to recommend it highly enough. So if you get a chance get over there and give it a try.

If you do not like coffee, God forbid, they also have tea and hot chocolate and Chai and lots of other things to drink that I am told are really quite tasty. I find it to have a very comfortable atmosphere as well. I basically have not had a bad experience there. They are open seven days a week from 6am to 10pm which is good because "anytime is the right time for coffee"
(That phrase is mine. I claim it by order of the internet bloggers collective.) They also have free Wi-Fi so you could be down there right now reading this while you drink their coffee. Think about that. Did I just blow your mind?

But, do not just take my word for it. Go down and check it out. You will be glad that you did.

Back on the Track!

Hey folks. I am sorry that I have not been writing much lately. The job I am working is moving closer to a finish date and I have been a little busier then I have in the past. So I have been reading on the train rather then writing about my adventures.

I just noticed a strange thing today. Two guys in a truck with a covered canopy drove into the Wilsonville Transit Center parting lot and pulled a bicycle out of the back of it. I watched one walk away while the other climbed on the bike and rode off in the same direction. Hmm, I thought they must be heading for the train. But they just came back minus the bicycle and drove off in the truck. I must admit to being confused by this. I can only assume that they were dropping the bike of for someone but it would have not occured to me at first look. Now that I think about it I recall seeing the same truck in the past I am going to have to pay more attention to it to see if it is dropping off the same bike or what is going on.

I know it probably gets old me continuing to trumpet the horn of public transit. But, I am going to do it anyway, in the last month or so as I have ridden the train and taken the MAX in Portland I really have say that I enjoy it. I enjoy the peace of mind it brings me. I enjoy that it allows me to have a relativly short drive to the station. I like that it allows me to follow my own personal thoughts on how much driving I am doing and lets me take my car off of the freeway.

I just hope that Woodburn and Salem are seeing what good the WES is doing and are beginning to realize that it would benefit both of those communities to look toward a rail system of some sort. A rail system that at the very least would connect the WES to Woodburn and Salem for transit purposes. That being said I want to lay out my idea for Salem to make the downtown a more viable place for shopping and for people to live. Because right now the downtown core of Salem is dying a slow death and putting in overpriced Condos is not solving the problem.

This is the plan. North of Salem is Keizer Station a shopping center that is really an eyesore as far as I am concerned but imagine if there was a train or trolley running from the station and down River Road into downtown. There used to be street cars in Salem. I say we bring them back. What if we took a 6 block square or bigger around downtown and made it car free. Only trolleys and people walking perhaps a few of those ricshaw things. We could bypass around the downtown using Front St on one side and something else on the East. But in one fell swoop downtone becomes a place where people go to walk and to shop to sit outside in the summer and eat and have coffee. Because right now it is a place that people sail through. I am sure there are obstacles to my idea but I really think that this could make Salem a more liveable place for all of us.

Please tell me your thoughts. I would love to hear them.