the refinery

santa monica, ca

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the coffee is truly excellent - you can tell that the barista puts a lot of time and attention to making sure that you get the perfect cup of coffee. it takes about 5+ minutes to brew. they have coffee beans from all different regions, each with different tasting notes. i couldn't taste any of the notes in my coffee (tobacco?), but i could tell it was tasty. it was also very expensive - a cup of drip coffee costs over $5. my chocolate chip muffin was very good, but the shop didn't have any forks for me to eat it with. there is limited seating, but i never see this shop crowded. it seems like a great idea with the wrong location - it needs a more upscale neighborhood. on santa monica boulevard, it's just up the street from hooters and the 3rd street promenade. not really the $5-cup-of-coffee kind of crowd.

blue bottle coffee

san francisco, ca

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the day after the exam, i decided to wander the streets of san francisco by myself. i started the day at the ferry building for breakfast. there were so many choices - do i get a cute little cupcake from miette, a meat cone from boccalone, or a roll from acme bread company? i decided to try blue bottle coffee to see what all of the hype is about. each cup of drip coffee is individually brewed, but thankfully i ordered a rosemary-studded olive oil shortbread cookie to munch on while i waited for that process. and it really is a process - there's a contraption with a row of coffee cups and coffee filters filled with coffee just above them. a woman with a teapot of hot water pours a little bit into the filters, watches them, pours a little bit more, watches them again, repeat.

18 minutes from entering the line to getting my coffee (although the line was even longer by the time my drink was ready). it was $3.75 for a drip coffee with foamy steamed milk swirled into a pleasant design. this is special occasion coffee - making this a daily habit might dent both your wallet and your patience. but i had the time and the funds, so i enjoyed sitting at the blue-bottle-customers-only counter, sipping my exceptionally aromatic coffee while watching the comings and goings of the ferry building.

financier

midtown, nyc

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the original location of this cleverly named patisserie is in the financial district (a financier is both a type of french pastry and someone who handles a lot of money -- get it?), which is located at the southernmost tip of manhattan. this means that lazybones like myself only tasted pastries from this bakery when one of my friends (usually jenny or dorothy) brought some to the office or to a party. on those rare occasions, tarts and pies from financier were a special treat.

something happened, however, when financier opened a branch just a few blocks away from my office. perhaps distance does make the heart grow fonder because i found that the midtown location's pastries are good, but not amazing. the dining area of the bakery is cluttered and dirty. the sandwiches are small and take forever for them to make. we still go every now and then to get some coffee and perhaps satisfy a craving for sweets, but sadly, the allure is gone.