On my recent trip to New York City, I discovered with delight and a bit nostalgia – a can of a Chock Full O’ Nuts coffee sitting next to a coffeemaker in my hotel room. NYC has LOTS of everything, but when it comes to coffee, it seems that coffee drinkers remain loyal to a brand that’s been around for decades. Of course, Starbucks can be found here and there (including the Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue) and there are some not-too-apparent, ultra chic independent coffee spots as well, but overall—it seems that coffee is just another part of NYC life.
Yesterday I attended Coffee Fest at the Seattle Convention Center—a very aromatic, caffeinated experience to be sure. This trade show also took place in New York earlier this year. Apparently, New York is fertile ground for more coffee options. I was told by a representative at the Caffé Vita booth that they will be opening their first store in lower Manhattan very soon.
Apparently, coffee sale profits and the coffeehouse coziness found throughout the Puget Sound region are being exported to the Big Apple. And there is more to coffee consumption than coffee.
What I expected to see at Coffee Fest was a myriad of coffee beans and espresso machines, but what I found
Espresso Vivace – the original in Seattle
was any and every thing associated with coffee culture—java jackets, purses made of burlap coffee bean bags, a special hook for hanging your cup o’ joe on anything it can hook to. Of course, there were also daily ‘Latte Art’ competitions and best coffeehouse contests taking place. I passed by a booth selling a product that prevents ‘coffee [stained] teeth,’ sampled cappuchino flavored granola, perused several books about coffee as well as a discovering a new ‘app’ (Find Me Coffee) for finding coffee spots anywhere in the world.
That must be quite a database !
When I was researching coffee spots in Puget Sound online, I came upon a directory of coffeehouses throughout Washington State. If I had printed them out, the yield would have been 15 pages, single-spaced.
My copy of “Eclectic COFFEE Spots in Puget Sound” just before my trip to New York. I was so reluctant /scared /hesitant to open the package. Four years of research and travel, 41 paintings, 100’s of photographs and musings, a multitude of hours editing, re-editing, proofing—all condensed down to dimensions of 8.5 x 11 inches. WOW ! It’s hard to mentally process this amazing phenomenon, especially since the actual paintings for the book are 40″x 50.” Usually when I get an idea and take it from inception to reality on canvas (or on paper), the end result takes up an entire wall. I am excited and anxious to share my findings with coffee buffs everywhere.
Four of my paintings from the book will be on exhibition at Vivace Espresso Bar at Brix on Broadway in Seattle from October 4 – January 2013.