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.

My Two Favorites in Downtown Manhattan

It was light jacket weather in New York. Gargis day, Daniel Adler said, pointing to the puffy cumulus clouds and the blue sky with green leaves in a corner of the vista.

In SoHo at Gimme Coffee! the baristas are kind and successful because they love coffee and it shows when they brew. A barista with a cycling hat said they are opening a new headquarters on N 6th and Bedford in a couple of months. Daniel Adler asked them about the word malic, which they didn't know, but was on a poster of one of the coffees. It is a crystalline acid found in unripe apples and other fruit.

It was crowded at the bar and a woman watched in awe as he shot his espresso. He rolled it on his tongue and it cooled and became bitter in his mouth after the flavors had changed from amber to cocoa. She said you should have seen your face and he said you're not the first person to tell me that. She was once attractive, and her date was a short Eastern European man with a big bulbous nose and a cleft chin, straight blonde hair and blue eyes. He had a heavy accent when he said No; it sounded like "Naogh." "You should video yourself and put it on youtube," she said. Watch out for it, dear blog audience.

They went to Super Taste for dinner. There were new menus and the staff wore maroon polos with the name of the restaurant in Mandarin on the left breast. His little woman was there and she recognized him even though he hadn't seen her for a year. She brought the hot and spicy beef soups and then the dumplings and stood at her counter like a captain at the helm of his ship, overseeing the slaves working, arms crossed, satisfied. "SHINTONG WAO!" Oh, she runs a tight ship. Her voice is big though she is small and she is gentle too, like a good woman ought to be. And a good man is gentle too, but he knows when to be hard and strong also.