Friday 26 June 2015

Caffeine quest

Was it really so recently that I was stalking the back alleys of Vancouver desperately looking for a decent cup of coffee?  Was I so swift to condemn that noble city when comparing it to San Francisco (ah, Blue Bottle)?  Could I have imagined that I would soon be living somewhere that displays only two results - "Starbucks" and "Dunkin Donuts" (DUNKIN DONUTS?!) - when you type "coffee" into Google maps?  It was time to venture farther afield, which me and Pete did this morning when we took the Metro from Wheaton to Brookland.

The Metro is basically the Bay Area BART transferred across the country, with carriages of the same vintage and staff of the same surliness.  The entrance gates are identical, but I will admit that the all-vinyl seating probably accommodates fewer exotic fauna than SF's fabulously stained cushions.  Such happy antibiotic-resistant memories.

In Brookland is Filter Coffehouse and Espresso Bar, which appears if you search for "best coffee in washington dc".  Dunkin Donuts thankfully does not.  It's a bicycle-themed coffee place, which is bizarre in itself but also because Musette Caffe, which was the first place in Vancouver I had a good coffee, is also bicycle-themed.  When Hannah's job moves again I'll obviously be looking for bicycle-themed coffee shops in Kazakhstan, Dubai, or New Mexico.

Anyway, Filter turned out to be worth the trip.  I went for a latte, still wary of heading straight for the tricky cappuccino, and was pleasingly assured by the barista that it would contain a double-shot.  I chatted about beans and optimal milk volumes as he steamed away, and the resulting drink was nutty with decent strength, exciting nose and good finish, although the milk-texturing was not quite what I would have hoped.  I passed on some notes for next time.

Pete glugged down a hot chocolate and demolished a lemon poppy muffin in short order and soon we were on a train for the few stops home, back to the land of Starbs and Dunkin.  Perhaps there's an opening for me to set up a mobile gourmet espresso cart at the station entrance during rush hour.  Davies & Son Coffee.  Hmm.


Going down into Wheaton station on the longest escalator in the western hemisphere!  Yep, a true claim to fame, although it adds several minutes onto any journey.


A typical commuter.


Here we are.


Yum.


That one please.


What the..?  Wait.  What if it's not?