Posted by TheShot on 27 Aug 2007 | Tagged as: Foreign Brew
Just to prove my point about how the French get away with coffee atrocities while profiting from an undeserved reputation for being such café sophisticates, things seem to have taken a turn for the worse in the new Sarkozy era: Artsick > Other > New Grounds in Coffee: The French Onion Roast. In an unholy [...]
[view full post]Posted by TheShot on 01 Jun 2007 | Tagged as: Foreign Brew
Pim, of local Chez Pim fame, and I go waaay back. In fact, my very first blog post here cited her contrarian-but-oh-so-correct view that berets, croissants, and François Truffaut be damned — French coffee is crap.
OK, she has no clue who I am and likely prefers it that way. But what I do like about [...]
Posted by TheShot on 08 Apr 2007 | Tagged as: Local Brew
It was a year ago that we posted a review of Cafe Madeleine on O’Farrell St., near Union Square. And since we’re overdue for a Trip Report, and since I’ve been terribly lax (inept?) about taking photos at some of my more recent café visits, it’s time to dust off some “old” photos for a [...]
[view full post]Posted by TheShot on 22 Nov 2006 | Tagged as: Café Society, Consumer Trends, Foreign Brew, Local Brew, Starbucks
InsideBayArea.com published an article today by a self-employed writer (and cooking class instructor) who named some of her favorite coffeehouses around the country: Inside Bay Area - It’s more than just coffee — it’s a bowl for the soul. Yes, she unimaginatively resorted to the ever-popular, ever-tedious caffeine riff (calling coffeehouses “caffeine dens”). But she [...]
[view full post]Posted by TheShot on 27 Oct 2006 | Tagged as: Café Society, Consumer Trends, Foreign Brew
Maktoob Business, the business arm of a popular Arab portal, published an article this week revealing some international consumer attitudes towards coffee and cafés: Coffee culture: a global phenomenon? by Synovate | Maktoob Business.
Interviewing 5,806 respondents in the US, UK, France, Brazil, Hong Kong, Singapore, Serbia, Morocco, and Australia, some of the survey’s findings include [...]
Posted by TheShot on 01 Sep 2006 | Tagged as: Local Brew
The Pearlina tea shop shut down and was replaced by this French bakery/café. At its heart is a great artisan baker who makes extraordinary pastries and breads (and is a true artisan: no cookie cutter stuff here). This is the baker’s only retail outlet, as the French team behind it have supplied some 40 local [...]
[view full post]Posted by TheShot on 14 Aug 2006 | Tagged as: Café Society, Consumer Trends, Foreign Brew
Those crazy French love their coffee, even if it isn’t very good coffee. A market research press release on Business Wire today announced a study of French coffee consumer habits: The Expansion of Coffee Bars is Expected to Change the way French People Traditionally Drink their Coffee.
The short of it is that more French are [...]
Posted by TheShot on 18 Apr 2006 | Tagged as: Local Brew
A popular, often crowded, slow, and somewhat under-tabled and under-staffed Parisian-styled café that strongly emphasizes French details. (It changed owners in March 2004.) A somewhat confused system for getting a table when they are busy — you’re not sure whether to grab a table yourself, to ask to be seated, etc. Black & white photographs [...]
[view full post]Posted by TheShot on 09 Mar 2006 | Tagged as: Local Brew
I hate writing about espresso bars in regression when there’s every reason for us to expect progression. There’s a rising tide of coffee quality that should theoretically lift all boats: McDonald’s is offering premium roast from Gaviña, 7-Eleven is offering single origin Kenya AA and Hawaiian Kona … and late last year Café de la [...]
[view full post]Posted by TheShot on 28 Feb 2006 | Tagged as: Local Brew
This is a rather non-descript French bakery/café. But don’t let that fool you. It has won numerous “best bakery” awards in the area and is immensely popular. (And yes, even Martha Stewart paid a visit here just a week ago.) It is also notorious for its Soviet-style bread lines, which run long out the door [...]
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