This was a rather interesting evening, as were most of those spent in my hometown of Tulsa, these past couple of weeks. Let me preface this little description with an explanation of why I’m writing this- blah blah blah…so, I spend a majority of my time in the busy [and currently freezing!] city of Chicago, attending design school at an art school- anyway, I was home for Christmas and New Year’s and that is where this story begins. A good friend whom I’ve known for half my life had asked me several times when we could get together and go out, and because his schedule never seemed to mesh with mine, we’d not gotten together and the time for my return to Chicago was coming we’d decided to just go out the Sunday before New Year’s. Well, that was a convoluted mess. Anyway I’m just going to describe the getting coffee part.
Ok I’m not going to sugar coat this! You should never ever get a paper cup before a ceramic one! This has become a pet peeve of mine as of late and after reviewing a previous post realized that I have the same complaints here as I did there…
After entering the Nordaggio’s location at 81st & Lewis, The Plaza, for those of you who know Tulsa, my friend David and I approached the counter and were greeted by both employees working behind the counter this was nice and always is.
I always love talking to the Barista, server, waiter/waitress or whoever is behind the counter at any given place I go. I think it either greatly adds or detracts from ones experience. I don’t know about anyone but myself, but I don’t go out much, this is mostly my own choice, I generally prefer to cook myself, or what have you. But if and when I decide to visit a particular restaurant or coffee shop it had better be amazing. I really don’t think that it is too much to ask for good quality food/drink, a pleasant experience and decent service…on the flip side though, the ‘customer’ should also have manners as well, but that’s another story.
So while my friend is deciding on is order the Americano I ordered is being made… it was strange but I asked for a small Americano, which has become my new standard, and the guy asked if I wanted “room for cream”. This question threw me off a bit and this is what went through my head while I was searching for something to say… “Room for cream! What in the world?” Once I figured out what he was asking I said “No” [I said “No” because I’d never heard of anyone putting cream in an Americano, I mean if you want cream, just order a latte or a regular coffee…don’t ruin a perfectly good Americano with cream – this way of thinking is all thanks to my friend Brian, who has taught me all I know about coffee, and thus spoiled me for life- never can I go back to the days when I thought QT ‘cappuccino’s’ and Starbucks mochas were a good thing.]
Back to the story… as David finally ordered his mint-chocolate blended concoction that bears no resemblance to coffee, my Americano was being handed over the counter to me in an obviously too small styro-paper container. One could tell it was too small especially since the guy passing it too me spilled it, only an ounce or so but it got all over his hand, the counter and the cup… I was disappointed. I wasn’t asked if I wanted a paper cup and I hadn’t said my order was “to go” and I still got a paper cup. I assumed that because no one had asked and I’d not mentioned it was to go that I would get a ‘real’ cup. I was wrong, and you know what they say about assuming, well I really don’t know what ‘they’ really say about it, but I can imagine it would go something like this…”one should never assume, because it will probably be the wrong assumption”. Anyway I got some napkins to clean up the coffee and attempted to put a lid on the mini cup but even the small ‘to go’ lids were too big, and after saying something about the horrible cup and how I’d wanted a “real” cup. David asked the guy for a real one and this time I got a cup and a saucer!
The Americano wasn’t quite as good as I would have hoped, but it was decent, especially after I poured it into a real cup. It was a bit on the acidic side…I think that’s the right term…it the flavor was a bit sharp and not as smooth as one would have liked and this obscured the flavor of the coffee…oh, well…maybe next time.
