The Way I Shoot

When they weren't skating they were cultivating their espresso connoisseurship. Among the many cafes in downtown Manhattan, Gimme! Coffee in quiet SoHo attracted him with its red banner. The two boys entered the slender espresso bar, placed their orders, and waited patiently at the end of the granite counter in front of the beautiful red Marzocco espresso machine. They balanced their skateboards with index fingers, watching the hipsters and the pretty girls, and the artistic photographs over the black wainscoting. The baristas were red haired girls and mustachioed young men with bicycle caps and tight t shirts and chains that held their wallets snugly in the pockets of their tight pants.
  
The first espresso was delivered on a plate with a spoon and a glass of water. It was always his ever since the first time he lunged on it as soon as it was offered.  If you don’t drink the espresso within the first ten seconds it’s made, it will spoil and bitter. You can prevent this by adding sugar or milk, but he was a purist. The shot landed on the plate and he hurried it into his mouth eagerly savoring the flavors, eyes-shut, consciously feeling people watching him. He closed his eyes tighter and lolled the chocolate-sweet piquancy on his tongue back and forth, over the divots in his molars, feeling the hints of cinnamon, burgundy, ochre, all so good and the perfect temperature so his tongue didn't burn and he swallowed it. And it was over. The last brown pearl he poured onto the espresso spoon and touched it to his palate, complimenting the barista afterwards.

Coffee Klatch: National Coffee Day

Yesterday was National Coffee Day. Portland is a city of coffee. Stumptown roasters come from the eponymous northwest town in the corner of the United States, so dubbed because one hundred years ago it was full of stumps from the booming logging industry.

Ace Hotel, originally from Portland and now in New York and Palm Springs, serves a mean Stumptown espresso. Fresh Pot in the Mississippi neighborhood serves a Stumptown blend that the store's manager developed with local roasters for a mix that sits especially well with ice cubes. This brew is perfect for Portland's Indian summers, happily soaking the late sunshine before the onset of winter mist.

In the Pearl District and now on artsy Alberta, a new cafe called Barista offers a daily espresso selection. Among those offered was a Stumptown Santo Domingo bean, which the barista described as "floral" and "citrusy." I followed her recommendation and watched the brown drops fill the small cup. It was just the right temperature, and I lolled it on my tongue savoring the flavor garden. Just seven months old, this is just one of Portland's many independent coffee houses.

  So if I'm ever homesick, at least there's Stumptown in New York.