The Post Road Starbucks — closed for more than a week for renovations — reopens Friday.
A couple of guys inside — above the barista rank — said it was undergoing a “10-year remodeling.” They promised a “fresh look.”
Could I take some photos?
“No!” they said in unison.
So an exterior shot — looking the same as always — will have to do.
So this guy at the near-the-diner Starbucks spreads all these documents and notebooks one comfy chair. He sits in the other nice one, working on his laptop. From the looks of things he’s been there a while, like since he first started his consulting project or novel or whatever.
Serene on the outside. Inside, it's every man for himself.
I ask if I can move his junk stuff Very Important Research. He gives me that look that intimidates women and children. But I’m a guy, so I just glare back. I move his crap portable desk, and sit down.
I whip out my iPhone, check headlines and weather and e-mail, drink my coffee and leave. Mr. Big Tough Guy keeps tapping away. He’s probably still there.
Which brings me to today’s “06880” civility questions. The topic is: “What is proper Starbucks etiquette?”
These are important questions, as every Starbucks-going Westporter knows. Click “Comments” to add your 2 cents.
Just a few years ago, the Westport Library’s decision to open a tiny cafe was controversial.
Too Starbucks-y! some cried.
Too noisy! others complained.
This is a library, for god’s sake! a few harrumphed.
Library Cafe manager Sarah Tunney, hard and happily at work.
Today, of course, the Library Café is one of the most important hubs in a building that has become a true community gathering place. It’s a spot where business meetings, study sessions, writing, socializing — and sandwich-nibbling and coffee-drinking — take place. Often all at the same time.
Now it’s time for an upgrade.
The Café is serving healthy, organic — and local — food.
The whole grain muffins and scones are baked daily in Westport (without preservatives).
Sandwiches — available 7 days a week — come from right around the corner (well, Oscar’s and the Organic Market).
Even the soft drinks are locally bottled — and sweetened with cane sugar, not yucky ol’ corn syrup.
Café manager Sarah Tunney — who, in typical Westport Library fashion has a Ph.D., and taught at NYU — has added a few other wrinkles.
For example, a “Word of the Day” challenges patrons.
And a “Pay It Forward” option allows anyone to buy a drink for anyone else — even if she’s not there at the moment. It’s another small piece of community-building, library director Maxine Bleiweis says.
Next week — during Staples’ mid-term exams — the cafe will stay open later than usual. “Brain food and drink” will include free samples of “Jaina Chai,” named for teen librarian Jaina Lewis. (It’s all local too — the black tea and spices, even the honey.)
There are also extended hours during WestportREADS events, with the added attraction of desserts and sweets from local bakeries (and sandwiches, for those who missed dinner).
The best part of the Library Cafe: You don’t hear that annoying, just-a-bit-too-loud music Starbucks is so fond of.
Then again, what do you expect? This is a library, for god’s sake!
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!
Posted in Downtown, Local business, Westport life
Tagged Chat-n-Chew, Coffee An', coffee shop, Great Cakes, Las Vitas Lounge, Sono Caffeine, Starbucks
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