Problogue

Right... on another rainy day in Vancouver, I was motivated to start this coffee tour while sitting in JJ Bean, one of the more popular cafes on my street... main st. I was planning to work at JJ Bean for the next two weeks with daily 5-6 hour shifts of video editing... but as "Christina Aguilera's Genie in a Bottle" played overhead at the mid-point of day 1, I eventually decided that it was time to search for a better cafe. There is a little prologue to this story, and it goes a little something like…

About 2 months ago when I first moved to the Mt Pleasant hood, I was having a few pints with some friends, and Greg tells me that I’m lucky to be moving to Main because JJ Bean, on 14th and Main, has the “best” coffee in the world. I don’t think much of it as I can barely tell the difference between a coffee from Starbucks and 7-11. But anything that's the BEST in the WORLD deserves a go. So I finally hit up JJ BEAN to order Greg’s "best coffee in the world" - Americano (whatever that is)... and like a Glenlivet on the rocks, I do notice a difference right away. It really is the best coffee I have ever had. I ask a cute brunette coffee girl about it, and she explains that she is roasting the beans right there in the shop. That means that the beans are much more fresh than any place like Tim’s or Starbucks, hence the great coffee.

Perfect. It’s big, lots of space. Every table on the wall has it’s own electrical outlet so I can plug in. A lot of cool people come in and the staff seems to talk to people all friendly like. Plus they have lots of selection of food, snacks and cookies (ginger snaps... SNAP!). So I’m pretty sure this is going to be my office for the next couple of weeks. Wrong. And it wasn’t the crumbly croissant that upset me. I could easily change to just cookies. But the big reason that inspired me to begin my new search was the MUSIC. I wouldn’t have even minded no music at all, but I was horrified to realize that the music they were playing here was all wrong. They play 80s and 90s top 40 satellite music that the staff has no control over.

After two hours, a nice coffee and then smooth Chai to calm my nerves, the music had become as annoying as two white beagles locked in a Volvo. I became obsessed with what would be the next gay song. Obviously with top 40, there were some decent songs coming up, but there was a consistency of puke that just couldn’t sit in my stomach any longer…

At first, “Turn the beat around” made me smirk. Mariah Carey “Dreamlover” and some Enrique crap made me worry a bit. But when I heard 2 unlimited “are you Ready” and Vanilla Ice’s “Ice Ice Baby”, it hit me like a blind date with Lisa Kudrow that this could never be “my café”, and I would have to start a new search. So I thought about it and there were like 10 other cafes in between my house and JJ Bean anyways. Let's take a look at what makes a good cafe...

Thursday, November 1, 2007

VI – The Grind


It’s Halloween and this is the “6”th café on review so I don’t know if that had something to do with this bad day (yesterday by the the way). I sprained my ankle very badly the other night so I had to limp to this next café with a grimace. That’s probably why nothing magical happened. I’m not going to say too much because, well... if you step in shit, people will smell it anyways.

There are two rooms at The Grind. If you go, make sure to see the big room at the back, because it is very unnoticeable if you don’t know it’s there. It has a piano and luckily today I got to hear someone playing. There were big antique chairs, huge tables and women knitting. It seemed to be a good place to work or study for long periods of time. Besides the piano, they have a CD player in the shop and I got to hear a lot of hiphop and R&B full cds (Kanye West, TLC)

They had nice big bulleting board, free internet and the place is open 24 hours. However if you are looking for a tasty treat and good coffee... well... "Bababooey-Bababooey-Howard Stern's Penis".

At the end of my day

My Bill
Americano 2.25
Chai Latte & Lemon Cake 4.60

My Rating
Coffee C-
Service B
Atmosphere C+
Music B
free internet +1 bonus point
24/7 +2 bonus points
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