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Lord of the Frappes
If the link doesn’t work, click http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JaHb8grTIUk
Summer Book Rec: How to Be Idle
I am reposting something from last year because it’s summer (in the northern hemisphere) and your minds are more easily prone to indoctrination by this manifesto. Free your soul!
“I have a dream. It is called love, anarchy, freedom. It is called being idle.”
-Tom Hodgkinson
How to make a Frappe
For those who haven’t been paying attention. The crack of all coffees.
The crack in your coffee
Part of Urban Confessions Week
Alright, this confession comes from a barista/cook/waiter/owner all in one type of worker behind the
counter of a Greek diner. It’s SCANDALOUS, I say, for a Greek or Greek diner coffee lover. Now I truly believe the magic behind the Greek diner coffee is the temperature. See my Cecil-ware conversations about this. But on two separate occasions at two different diners, I heard a fellow addict ask the Greek magician if he used “the Greek coffee”, as she sipped her black elixir with a smile. He nodded, and then mumbled, “Venizelos…” Venizelos, is it you in there?! How is that possible, you are the dark demi-tasse kind. Perhaps the diners are using this as a “secret sauce”, a variant of a potion I am convinced a certain donut chain uses to make their coffee taste so darn good. Or is the coffee in some of these places exclusively brewed from Venizelos beans? If any of you try to make a cup of joe with Venizelos from a drip machine and not a briki, let us know how it tastes. We’re close to unraveling the code of the king of urban coffee.
Fanciest so far
My love for diner coffee has reached an all-time-high. I am pathetically in love with diner coffee. I now find myself critiquing the cups they are served in, and am forever spoiled by this cup here, served to me in a diner in Murray Hill, Manhattan. Look at that saucer!
I know, I know, the heroin in this love affair is the temperature… Nobody else gets it anymore. Diners are the last bastion of hot, unrushed coffee. But it’s also the ceramic cup, the dainty spoon, the cream, the cozy atmosphere… I’m in love!
More diner talk
I’ve been enjoying more of our classic NYC Greek diners. What pleasure to know that even though there may be an abundance of Starbucks, I can still roll the die in passing them in faith that the NYC Greek diner is still a steady part of our urban landscape and I will find one to enjoy a good cup of coffee.
We already talked about part of the secret to their great cup of joes, Cecilwares Fe 100’s. But here are more reasons I’ll take my coffee there over other places:
- sitting at the counter top is like being in someone’s living room. There is a feeling of hospitality. The people behind the counter are like mother hens to your needs.
- the cups are a heavy ceramic that retains the heat of the coffee. The feel of the china in your hands is real, not a flimsy disposable cup, a plastic nothingness that separates you from the world and implicates you as an eco-sinner. That ceramic cup is endless. It’s always hot, and when it is not, you’ll get a refill.
- the experience seems tailored just for you. You don’t have to speak a stupid branding language, you don’t have to order like a robot.
- they can make the cheapest bean taste good.
So ode again to the Greek diner and its coffee.
Heavenly coffee
The Church of Heavenly Rest, located at 2 East 90th St. (Fifth Ave.) in Manhattan has something wonderful going on besides spiritual love. I walked by there and did a double take. They run a cafe out of the church! It is darling. Talk about setting a scene for some good idling and pensive thought. You can order a cup of coffee, smell church incense, feel the curvature of the gothic arches with your eyes- all while contemplating the meaning of life and whether your cappuccino foam has taken the form of holy images. You might get distracted by the mansion next door, but that’s okay! Allow yourself to daydream…
Café con leche
Diner in Viejo San Juan, Puerto Rico 2004
The name escapes me but it had a good café con leche and a cozy atmosphere. What would be a Greek diner for NYers.
Ode to… Cecilware Fe-100
I was sipping my coffee in Reme diner in Washington Heights, and I was struck by a wave of taste bud goodness. The coffee was the perfect temperature. Hot. Even when you put cream in it. I was in heaven. I was sitting at the bar, so I looked up to see where the magic came from- again a Cecilware Fe-100. Ode to Cecilware Fe-100! It turns any cheap coffee bean into cafe heaven. Reme has a good relationship with its Cecilware Fe-100. Because when the waiter saw my cup half empty, he said, “Here, let me give you a fresh, hot cup…” and whoosh! took it away and replaced it with more black liquid goodness. They didn’t pour more into my stale coffee, probably knowing it would make it luke warm. I adored them immediately. Hail Cecilware Fe-100 in Greek diners.
The Charm of Athens
Temple of Zeus, Athens Greece September 2005
I often hear of some Greeks advising potential tourists to the patrida to skip Athens in their itinerary. If the Greek islands are your destination with limited time, I can see that. BUT… here’s why Athens works, either to visit or to live in, despite some of the harshness found in any city, in its own form.
- The Acropolis. Could very well be personal taste, years of Euro-centric schooling- Nah! Shut up. The sight of the Acropolis at night, draped in moonlight with an eerie glow… is breathtaking and surreal. How many times have I shed a tear just catching sight of it, wherever I may be in the Athenian night? Visit during the hours of 12pm-3pm during the months of July and August and you’ll swear you’ve just hiked into the atmosphere of the sun.
- Coffee culture. Try a damn frappé, for goodness sake, and people watch behind black sunglasses. If you’re a man, have black hair with Adonis wavy locks– you’ll blend right in. If you’re uppity, go to Kolonaki for your cafe. But you will have a nice frappé atmosphere almost anywhere. If coffee is not your thing, try a frosty beer with some feta-cheese flavored Lay’s chips.
- The beach. It’s just a drive away. You don’t have to island hop or go broke. City dweller by week day, beach god or goddess during the weekend.
- Island excursions. Just a short plane ride away (or more true to the Greek experience) a ferry away. See above! The Charm of Athens – continue reading …
