In Love...With Coffee Shops

There's something so romantic about a coffee shop.  It attracts people of all kinds.  It welcomes them in with the bittersweet aroma of espresso, promises them a peaceful seat, and provides them with free wifi.  At any given coffee shop at any given time, you can spot the elderly gentleman reading the paper, a young student frantically cramming for a pending final, a middle-aged intellectual putting the finishing touches on his novel, and a wayward twenty-something inspired to write a post on her darling and continuously neglected little blog.  The sounds will always be the same, the screeching of steamed milk, the low hum of chit chat, and someone's really loud great aunt catching up her friends on the latest family gossip.  There's the first-daters, nervously playing with their now empty coffee cups.  The couple meeting after work, she's greeted with a kiss as he grabs his usual drink she has waiting.  The random out-of-towner with a British accent, and the awkward gamer in the corner, glued to his computer.  

Perhaps they're romanticized because every coffee shop makes us think of that overstuffed couch that Ross and Rachel flirted on, or that Starbucks where Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks ordered their coffee in passing, or Luke's Diner where Lorelai banters as Luke fills her with yet, another giant mug of coffee. 

Maybe we're obsessed because of the people we've met in them.  Friends from high school, mentors, potential bosses - people that have shaped our past and who matter in our future.  Perhaps it's the delicacies guaranteed inside.  The familiarity of a piping hot latte paired with a cinnamon spice scone that almost speaks to you.  Or the music - the soft jazzy and relaxing tracks that dance around the room and get stuck in your head.

What the romantic draw to these establishments is, we may never know...but this I can tell you: If you ever get the chance to go to Moravia, Costa Rica - there's a hidden little cafe at the back of a bookstore there.  If you sit outside, it feels like you're sitting next to a rainforest, and their pastries are delicious.  In Traverse City, MI there's a coffee shop next to an old insane asylum called Higher Grounds.  They roast their own beans, and a batista there can do the best latte art.  In Cedarville, OH there are two rival coffee shops.  Stoney Creek Roasters has the best coffee, a fire place, and you'll always run into someone you know.  Beans n Cream has been around forever, and they have an upstairs where you go if you need to hide in a small, small town.  Go to Stoney Creek if you're in a hurry - Beans n Cream to take your time.  In Grand Rapids, MI Bitter End is open 24-7 and has some of the best people-watching and parking in the city.  It's usually where you find yourself surrounded by some of your favorite people.  And, finally, when you find yourself in the quaint little town of Mattawan, MI - Java Joint has a chocolate pastry thing that gets me every time and you can never go wrong with a blended mocha.  Just down the road, Nadean's Coffee Shop boasts one crazy owner for sure, and she was the first person to put cinnamon syrup in my Americano, which changed my life.  You have to have her scones warmed, and you can call your order ahead...if you ever happen to be running a little late...

Wishing you a much love with a coffee shop,

A cafe-sitting, coffee-drinking, completely smitten with coffee shops everywhere little darling