But talk about high prices. My wife and I had a reservation there last year that I had to cancel — simply because I was meeting up with an old friend (and restaurant fanatic), but I simply didn’t want to blow his future child’s college fund in the process of meeting up for a nice dinner together. (So we instead dined at the “cheap” Japonais Restaurant — located in the old Montgomery Ward HQ building where I once worked as a graphic designer in college, which was a bizarre experience for me.)

Good coffee really shouldn’t require a $500 meal. And when it’s done right, I’ve remembered it as much as anything on the menu.

Because of an incredibly generous gift, I was able to eat at Alinea here in Chicago in January. Alinea is one of the best restaurants in the country (or so critics claim). It’s the only place that I’ve ever had a choice of coffee varietals. If memory serves, there were three single origin beans to choose from, served freshly roasted that day in a french press at the table. It was, and still is, the best cup of coffee I’ve ever had, but the meal for two cost $500 (again, paid almost exclusively by the gift; I have no such excess of cash), so I would expect a lot.

But, why do I have to pay $500 to get a choice of three coffee varietals? There are four great restuarants within walking distance of my apartment, with entrees around $20, but none of them offer any real selection. Two of them have automatic espresso bars, the others just serve drip.

By the way, that cup of coffee was the defining element of the meal. Any Joe can cook a perfect piece of wagu in a yuzu sauce and serve it with aromatic cedar branches. But I don’t know many people who can brew a perfect cup of coffee.

But given that many of these restaurants also offer multiple wines by the glass, which creates its own kind of small-quantity inventory problem (i.e., wine going stale in open bottles), I don’t see the inventory risk being that much worse for coffee.

Of course 40 is a whole lot, but what do we need in a decent cafe for tea …
regular, earl grey, cammomile, linden, a couple of fruit infusions, strong black to drink with milk, jasmine, two or three sorts of green, fresh mint, chai, white and maybe a couple of clipper or yogi organic tea’s.

About the French press. It’s true it doesn’t have to be more than that. But it’s also true you need good fresh beans and grinded on demand, portion by portion.
Do we have a deal? : )