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Monthly Archives: September 2015

Last Coffee of Summer-The Kind Cafe

Hey all, I realize it’s been a while since I last posted. Summer has been exceedingly busy, especially towards the end. Where I work that’s when busy season starts to kick in as we prepare for all the book orders coming in from everyone starting the academic year. That makes this post a little late. I actually visited The Kind Cafe in Selinsgrove, PA during my family reunion, which happened back on the second week of August.

For those who don’t know, Selinsgrove is actually a college town. When you think of Pennsylvania universities, you typically imagine the small suburbs clustered around Philadelphia, or the mountain enclaves like Lock Haven and Happy Valley. Selinsgrove is neither and both, being on the major artery of 11/15 and only an hour from Harrisburg. It’s actually the college town attached to Susquehanna University. It’s a very good, very expensive university with multiple focuses, including fine arts, and the layout of the town of Selinsgrove immediately reflects the fact that it houses a student population. Little curio shops, boutiques, and yes coffeehouses, all fight for space along the busy main street corridor. Selinsgrove’s artsy charms stand in contrast to the very rural, working class, conservative towns that surround it as one winds up north through the Appalachians.

The Kind Cafe was not only my refuge from the family reunion chaos. It was a place I wanted to go just because of the name. Obvious hippies. After visiting, it was also a place that I promised to come back to the next time I made my way up north. The Kind Cafe is a breakfast and brunch restaurant in addition to serving coffee and they really bill themselves as a nexus for student activity, hosting events and festooning their coffee shop with shelf upon shelf of books and community bulletins.

I ordered the freshest medium-dark roast, cut with a third of a cup of decaf (I was already strung out from too much family reunion). The woman at the counter was kind enough (get it) to make some decaf espresso to put in there, even though I had inadvertently shown up about 15 minutes before closing time! It was really rich and creamy, even a little floral at the end, without the bitterness that sometimes comes with the darker roasts that I favor. All of their coffee seems to come from a local roaster called Freshroastedcoffee LLC. That was definitely a plus in my book, not only because you could genuinely taste the fact that the beans had not been stored for an eternity in the back of a truck, but that it truly showcased the very deep roots that this place has in the community.

So yeah, if you’re in the area, stop by. Definitely stop by if you’re a card-carrying liberal-arts bookworm like me. It is a bastion of proud intellectualism amid a sea of…well, not all that much unless you’re getting ready for hunting season! Oh, and look for my next updates to come along pretty soon as the weather turns colder and the other college towns of PA and Maryland start heating up. Until next time, stay thirsty, folks.