Cafe Squibs: Coffee Around School

Van Gogh's "The Night Cafe"

Grey skies, grey books, and grey minds.  Uncertainty taints everything, even the weather, leaving a dull ache in that part of your mind that worries about things.  In times like these, there’s nothing like a decent cup of coffee to flush color to your world.  So, because we at EagleIOnline care about you (at least I do), here’s a post that features the few coffee shops around school.  Who knows, perhaps you can take a minute out of your busy schedules to try something new.

George Howell Coffee Company

Formerly known as Taste Coffee, I went in last week to sit down with a cappuccino and some class readings.  Recently this place has been a bit hit or miss for me.  Perhaps it’s due to the fact that the drinks here cost more than normal and so the stakes are high.  But on this day, the cappuccino hit the spot, that soft part of my brain responsible for all law-related functions.

This is the closest place to school where you would find carefully pulled espresso shots and latte art (sometimes, it depends on the barista).  It’s a quick five-minute drive out of the back way of the law school.  My only real complaint about this place is the daily influx of high school students in the mid to late afternoon.  That and the price.  Oh, and last time I checked they didn’t have outlets, a great way to keep people from spending an entire day occupying a table.  But seriously, the lack of outlets has steered me away from the café on more than one occasion.

Great Harvest Bread Co.

http://wickedgoodbread.com/

My new go-to place.  Their coffee is the regular cup o’ joe, but that’s all I want: a regular cup of coffee.  There’s nothing as hard as achieving consistency and normalcy in one’s life, and the coffee here has that familiar comfort that comes with delivering decent coffee everyday.  A great spot for the quick and inexpensive grab and go—not such a conducive space to sit down in.  I myself usually get a scone + coffee for under $4.

Starbucks

I was once a coffee critic, no better than the worst of man; I refused to drink Starbucks and only drank coffee that I ordered online.  Starbucks was part of “them” and their coffee always tasted old.  Where did we go wrong?  Long ago, I was once a wide-eyed and bushy-tailed high schooler starting on the path of adulthood, fully caffeinated with my mocha fraps.

I am still critical of my coffee.  But Starbucks has opened the little tin flap that hid my heart with a few new additions to their menu.  The most notable one is the Clover-pressed coffees.  Only available at certain locations (unfortunately not the ones near school), the Clover is a fancy brewing machine on which you can get the coffee of your choice freshly ground and brewed.  Otherwise, the new blonde roasts are a comfortable fit for my taste buds: smooth, light, and not too citrus-y.

Bread and Chocolate

http://www.breadnchocolate.com/

For whatever reason I don’t come here all that much.  I don’t even remember much about my experience last time.  I just remember their coffee being good enough and their good enough cookies being expensive.  This place is kind of like that moment when I was going to say something but I forgot what I was going to say before I said it—it must not have been that important.  I know this is a wholly uninformative squib, so please, if someone has more insight on this spot, leave a message in the comments below.

Dunkin’ Donuts

Nothing much to say here, except that it’s a New England standard.  Sometimes, I’ve got no choice but to go here (especially if I am in a foreign town).  The only time I will go out of my way to hit up a DD though, is when they have pumpkin donuts.

Peet’s Coffee

There’s a story I heard once, about a man named Peet who hailed from Berkley, California.  He read one too many books about the lucrative business of being a lawyer, so he packed his donkey and headed east to a land of law schools: Boston.  Once he arrived, he fell deeper into his noble (and some say delusional) quest for a career filled with virtue and honor.  He died of old age in his apartment in Cambridge, where he spent his last days reading about the glory days of partners past.  In memory of this man, a group of law students piled a few rocks and placed inside a few roasted coffee beans, one of Peet’s favorite snacks.  From there sprouted the Peet’s Coffee shop in Harvard Square, fueling students with its bittersweet reminders ever since.

I swear this story is true.  I myself have made frequent visits myself to the offshoots of this curious establishment, in Coolidge Corner and in Newton Centre, and felt the ghostly presence of Peet.  You could say I too have been infected with the same dreams of crawling up the class ladder.  The beverages taste darker than most other coffee shops, their coffee stronger than the will of a hunger artist in his cage.  The seasonal latte’s and the vanilla latte have brought me great joy and hope for a better day to come.

That’s all for this edition!  Stay tuned for part II to find out what I consider to be the finest of the fine coffee shops, including places like Diesel, Simon’s, and the mystery café that I consider to be the best of Boston.

-T.Noda