Don Sennevile and Jim White
We are finally back in our towns, dedicated to bringing you the latest in coffee cafe news. Foremost is the “Frappuccino Effect”, which until now we thought was just a coffee buzz. But au contraire, it turns out that the effect is to deliberately caffeinate local economies. According to the “Economist”, Starbucks has defined this model by designing coffee shops that bring community together by offering sit-down space, wi-fi service, and rocket fuel coffee. These are the ”Penny Universities” of our day. London Coffee houses in the 1800s pioneered this innovative model, in which, for the price of a cup of coffee, one could gain access to the era’s finest minds. Lloyd’s of London and the stock market were hatched there. We find this same level of intellect to be somewhat true every time we walk into our local Coffee Row establishments. An incubator for ideas?
So it turns out that as a byproduct of caffeinating local economies, local entrepreneurs are able to network and create between 1.5 and 3.5 new businesses in proximity to a Starbucks. Wow, so Magic Johnson (think basketball) grants very big bucks to put Starbucks in poor neighborhoods. Bingo, economic growth and community building. We feel better about Starbucks now after this news and now feel obligated to investigate our own Coffee Row for signs of network mobilization, which is really hard to do in a drive thru. More to follow.
Meanwhile, we’ve noticed that other people are returning to our towns from wherever they went (some no doubt driven by the fact that schools start in the middle of summer). Our favorite barista has returned with stories of her travels abroad after just graduating from High School. What follows is an interview with Ella, who was kind of enough to answer our mostly coffee-related questions. Hopefully, she’ll forgive our questions, interpretations and comments.
- Where did you go on your trip? Italy, London, Scotland. Any language issues? No, we were able to work it out. She elaborated: If you don’t want to speak to people in Italian, don’t greet them in Italian. Right? 2. Did you have any apprehension about going? Nope. I was ready to go! In fact, I’m ready to go back. 3. What were your 3 top coffee experiences? Latte in Inverness; Affagato in Florence; Latte in Rome. 4. Did they have Americanos over there? Yes, many Americanos. Was there a European equivalent – like “Italiano”, for example? Nope. Apparently nobody but Canada does that: There’s a coffee drink called “Canadiano” in BC.– same drink. 5. Did you drink tea? No tea; coffee instead. Did you eat a crepe? No crepes, but the gelato was amazing. Venice was the best. 6. Did you have new learnings, watching baristas there? No, just entertaining. Is there a barista dress code? They all wear aprons with the logo of the coffee shop on it. 7. Did you meet anyone interesting/memorable? Tour guide in Inverness, Scotland to the Highlands was super friendly and nice. 8. What was your most memorable experience (that you can share – not just coffee)? Walking to the Fairy Pools in Scotland and seeing the David statue in Florence. Yes, he is still the standard! If you have any coffee travel stories, please contact Jim and Don at The CUP, [email protected]
