Tag Archives: Coffee An’

It Took A Tough Nor’easter To Knock This Tree Down

Yesterday’s mega-storm brought this monster tree down on Canal Street.

(Photo/Larry Untermeyer)

Westporters had to find an alternate route to two of the most important spots in town: Crossroads Ace Hardware, and Coffee An’.

If You Can Get Out, You Can Get Coffee

Coffee An’ is open.

And thriving.

(Photo/John McCarthy)

Sunday Diners With Alex

Gold’s Delicatessen serves a tongue sandwich.

Christie’s Country Store sells 100% natural jam — the 1st ingredient listed is fruit.

Coffee An’ is so good, President Clinton ordered donuts from there.

Those are some of the on-target observations of Alex D’Adamo, gleaned from regular Sunday morning breakfasts with his dad.

A few years ago a 3rd grader — which Alex is — might have told those things to a couple of friends. A particularly creative kid might have written them down.

Alex created a blog.

Alex and Gold's owner Jim Eckl.

Now — with a bit of help from his father, James — he publishes Sunday Diners. Once a week, Alex’s relatives, his teacher — and random strangers, searching for things like “father-son breakfasts Fairfield County” — read Alex’s comments about the places he goes.

As well as his numerical ratings of “Food,” “Service,” “Looks” and “Bathroom.” (That’s very important. “If there’s toilet paper all over the floor, that’s gross,” Alex says. “If the bathrooms are clean, the kitchen is too.”)

Here are some of his recent comments on Gold’s:

Even though Gold’s is mainly known for their lunches like Pastrami and Corned Beef sandwiches and Hebrew National hot dogs they also make great breakfasts.  Except, they don’t serve eggs or pancakes, because, the kitchen at Gold’s is too small for that.  But that’s OK, because they say they have the best lox in the state, and that’s what I came to try today….

Before I even had my Nova, Karen the server gave me some pickles which were also really good — I’ve never had pickles at breakfast, but I had to try them.

After a bit of history of Christie’s, and before an interview with owners John and Renee Hooper, Alex wrote:

Today I had the Egg, Bacon & Cheese Sandwich on a toasted poppy- seed bagel — one thing I noticed was that the Egg Sand- wiches were very popular, it seemed like every person coming in the store was ordering one — one guy actually came in and bought not one…not two… not three… four or five… BUT six of them!  I wonder if he ate them all himself!  I also had some home fries which were tasty and hot.

Alex has always loved breakfasts with his dad. He remembers his 1st: at Commuter Coffee in Westport. That’s still a favorite.

“When I was little, I loved to watch the trains go by,” the 3rd grader recalls. “And Tommy (the owner) was always very nice to me.”

Sunday Diners’ 1st anniversary is coming up. Alex hopes to continue discovering great new places for breakfast for a long time to come.

And, on a return visit to Gold’s, he might even try that tongue sandwich.

(Click here to read Alex’s Sunday Diners blog.)

Alex, savoring breakfast.

The Man In The Van

Yesterday, “06880” burbled about the owner of Coffee An,’ who raced into the parking lot to give $2 back to a customer he’d inadvertently overcharged.

Today we present the flip side: Westporters behaving badly.

An “06880” reader was driving down the narrow exit lane that runs in front of Pompanoosuc Mills and Angelina’s, on her way out of the Barnes & Noble parking lot.

She was leaving, that is, until she reached the cleaner’s. There, a large van was parked in the middle of the lane. Its emergency lights were flashing. Its driver was nowhere to be seen.

The woman tapped her horn. A man strolled to the door of the cleaner’s, then turned back to his conversation with the person behind the counter.

She tooted again. Again, he made no move to leave.

She honked a 3rd time. The man slowly walked out of the store, telling the woman: “Relax! Relax!”

She told him she was late for an appointment.

He replied, “You have no choice. If I don’t move, you can’t get out.”

Then he swaggered into the driver’s seat, and drove away.

Chances are, the man in the van is not an “06880” reader. Yet he — like all of us — must look in the mirror every day.

Does he like the face that looks back? I have no idea.

But I know the owner of Coffee An’ does.

Stools

You can’t stop progress.

First the Y sells its downtown building.

Then Mario Batali and Danny Meyer bring New York-chic restaurants to our little village.

Now Coffee An’ has gone an’ reupholstered their stools.

Alert “06880” reader Larry Perlstein sent this photo along:

The owner — George — told Larry it’s the 1st time the seats have been redone since the place opened.

What’s next?  A level floor at the Duck?

Coffee Complications

It was a simple request, repeated dozens of times a day in Westport:

“Let’s have coffee.  Where should we go?”

Then my friend added a caveat:  “Besides Starbucks.”

The list of options dwindled dramatically.

Westporters — and the world — has a love/hate relationship with Starbucks.  Globally the chain has been pilloried for gross corporate commodification, introducing pseudo-sophisticated quasi-Italian complications into the formerly simple act of ordering a cup of coffee, exploiting third world farmers, and driving small shops out of business.

On the plus side, they have Wi-Fi.

Locally, the downtown location weirds me out.  The seating area is dark; the tables are in the wrong spot (they should face the river, not Klaff’s); it’s cramped, and not always, um, clean.

The 2nd location — “the Starbucks by the diner” — is better, provided you don’t mind listening to bad music just loud enough to be irritating.  It’s airier and roomier; there’s more parking, and if you’re lucky you can snag 1 of the 4 comfy chairs from the 50 people who park themselves there all day, laptopping their consulting projects, novel writing, porn-watching, or whatever it is they do in the seat I want to sit in.

The 3rd Starbucks — in Barnes & Noble — is reserved for tutors and tutees; Craigslist users meeting in public before hooking up to be sure the other person is not an ax murderer, and consultants and novelists who couldn’t get a comfy chair at the Starbucks by the diner.

The 4th Starbucks doesn’t count, because it’s in Super Stop & Shop.

So what’s the alternative?

If this was Fairfield, we’d go to Las Vetas Lounge.  If it was Norwalk:  Sono Caffeine.  If we were in Seattle we would be so paralyzed by choices, we’d never decide.

But this is Westport.  And despite being the most fabulous, hip, cool, wealthy and splendiferous spot on earth, our coffee shop choices suck.

Coffee An’ has great donuts, but it lacks ambience.

Great Cakes has Rick, Bonnie, and 3 little tables.

Doc’s is nice, but it’s in Saugatuck.  In Westport distances that’s like the galaxy Zork.

So after intensive deliberations, my friend and I decided on the perfect spot.  We’ll meet next week for coffee at a nice little place.  It’s got 4 comfy chairs, and parking.

See you at Starbucks!