Cool Coffee Shops That Aren't Starbucks

Okay, the one I actually mean is on 12th and Speer. . . I stop by this coffee shop every weekday morning. Great coffee, great service; they recognize me now so they have my coffee ready before I even make it to the cash register. Plus, they have a stamp card (oh how dearly I love stamp cards) so every 11th coffee is FREE and they don’t sneer at you for always getting a small but getting the large one that 11th time. (Oh yeah, and they really say, small, medium, large. I love that.) It’s owned by a woman, so of course, it’s just naturally better.

The location I mean is at 1201 E. 9th Ave. I go here every Sunday. The coffee is awesome and the service is friendly and quick. What makes this place special, though (I don’t know if this is just Sundays or what), is that almost the entire clientele is made up of really hot gay men. It’s a great way to look at hot men &/or eavesdrop on some cell phone drama, without getting involved. Unless, of course, you are a gay man, in which case you might like this coffee shop for other reasons.

I really like this coffee shop, for unobvious reasons. The coffee isn’t that great, and the service is really slow and kind of sucky. Also, they have Splenda in a jar. In a jar! It just feels wrong.

But. . . this is a great place to hang out, which is really what coffee shops are about. Lots of funky furniture, comfy couches, classy tables, and an outdoor patio where you can SMOKE. Plus, they have wine and dessert. This would be a great place for a date after a movie at the Mayan, say. I’ll check back if I every get asked out on a date again.