It's good to talk!
1. Black coffee. It has to be pretty bad coffee for me to want to add stuff to it.
2. Starbucks Cafe Verona, usually, which we keep in the freezer and grind on-demand. I think my husband was addicted to Verona - lately I have been forcing him to branch out to other blends. We make our coffee strong, or at least a few visitors we've had have let us know they think it's too strong. Like my daddy says, it takes less water to make coffee than most people think (Louisiana wisdom, apparently)
3. I also have reflux and am not supposed to drink so much. Right now I pretty much have it down to one big mug in the morning (the equivalent of a grande or a Bruegger's refillable mug). I like to have another in the afternoon but can't if it's before I'm going to exercise. On days that I eat breakfast out I probably have more coffee.
I don't get this increasingly popular line about Starbucks being bitter. I've had lots of kinds of coffee including a Gevalia "subscription" we had for a while, coffee from various gourmet shops and stuff people have given us and I like the two or three Starbucks blends currently in our regular rotation as much as anything.
I also hear people use the "and Starbucks coffee is no good anyway" as supporting material for efforts to buy from a local company. I am big on buying/eating local in general, but it's not like Starbucks is coming in here and forcing other ma and pa stores out of business. Trying to equate Starbucks with Wal Mart or Barnes&Noble/Borders doesn't work for me. At least where I live there were hardly any coffee shops until Starbucks came around…bakeries, bagel shops yes…coffee shops not so much. Now there's a bunch, which is great!
Okay, thanks, Merry... I now have an uncontrollable (and likely, unfulfillable) craving for a Bruegger's everything bagel, and a mug of their really good house coffee. I used to work at The Duck Shop on 9th, and would stop into Bruegger's for my morning fix before opening every Tues. & Thurs. mornings.
Or more frequently, I would 'open' the store, then put on the 'back in 10' sign as I ran across the street. Not like anyone shopped there during the year, besides Parent's Weekend and Homecoming.
My husband and I always had a disagreement as to the best coffee on 9th street back in the early/mid 90s. I prefer Brueggers, he was a Ninth Street Bakery fan.
Got a Folger's gourmet Columbian trial packet in the mail today. Is it worthy?
The 60s were before my time, in Durham terms. I don't remember any cafes on Ninth in the 70s...just the drug store, the five-and-dime type place (that also sold used romance novels - guilty pleasure of some overworked grad students) and of course the ABC store. What's now Brueggers was a bank. The Regulator opened in 1976...maybe that was the beginning of the gentrification?
On Broad there was the Top Hat bar and a pool hall...I was trying just last night to remember what year Somethyme opened down there or was it "always" there ("always" meaning since 1974 when I got here)
The Top Hat was on Broad Street across from Eckard's Drug Store - next to Clement's Funeral Home parking lot and south of W. Club Blvd. The building has been torn down and is now a parking lot. The pool hall was next to the Top Hat and was a separate operation. Watt's Hospital (now N. C. School of Science & Math - never figured out why NC needed a school of S & M!) property begins the northwest corner of the Club Blvd-Broad St intersection.
Somethyme (on Gregson between Main and Morgan) replaced Mayola's. Mayola Smith also owned the Top Hat and other restaurants in Durham. On Main Street, west of Albemarle St. was The Ivy Room and west of that The Donut Dinette (DodiDi). Next to DodiDi was Brunson's. On Albemarle Street, north of Main Street, was Annamarias Pizza (the famous Batman's, owned by Bennie and Annamaria Malanga.) That property is now a parking lot.
Breugger's was Wachovia Bank. On 9th St was Olive Godwin's Dance School (in the next block north of Wachovia.)
Any other remembrances of places around Duke at that time? How about the Ice House at Trent and Hillsboro Rd and the Drive Inn on Trent with Pappy serving brews. Then there was the Blue Light Drive Inn on Erwin Rd. near Main & 9th St. and the Liquor House on Pettigrew St. (off Erwin Rd.) - where the retirement home is now.
Lot's of neat places back in the days when Duke Frat parties required on site chaperone's and the beer age was 18.
Great topic. I'm a big coffee lover. My fondest memories of coffee were actually long before I ever began drinking it. The smell of a brewing pot of coffee will always make me think of my dad. Even before I took my first sip I would always ask to sniff his cup because I loved the smell.
To answer your questions:
1. I now drink my coffee black, though I still enjoy a caramel macchiato from starbucks (with soy please)
2. I drink Tom Danielson's brand of coffee named after his favorite mountain to climb (Brasstown Bald). He has several blends of coffee all named after his favorite climbs (and brasstown is his favorite) TD Coffee - Drink Coffee Like a Pro
3. I drink at minimum of 2 cups a day.
Ozzie, your paradigm of optimism!
Go To Hell carolina, Go To Hell!
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Heresy!
Although I never ate the "spag wit balls". Steph and I used to split and anitpasta and a pizza. I'm not saying it was the best food in town but it met our budgetary criteria. The comics being old was part of the fun. My favorites were the Tom Landy religious ones.
You know that all the food at Bat's was home made. Bat spent the mornings baking bread and the quiet time of the afternoon mixing dough for the next day. Pizza husks were formed and pressed in the kitchen. The sause was made in big pots and the meatballs were a mixture of beef, pork and veal and spices and cooked in the pizza oven daily. Find that today!
On top of that you had Bat to entertain you with guitar and words of wisdom, Anna in the kitchen for you, Rose to serve you and self-serve beer and soda from the cooler. Life was good.