Mad Roast, Carlisle PA

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Mad Roast, Carlisle PA

27 Jul

And then, the check engine light came on.

Starting in media res here, but it’s important to have context. I wanted an adventure, and I got one. Several adventures, actually, and they started two weeks before I set foot in the coffeehouse.

Adventure number one was Bluegrass on the Grass. That’s an annual festival happening the second Saturday in July on the green commons of Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Dickinson is a massive institution, and its performance spaces draw acts from around the state and beyond. I’ve been a lover of Bluegrass ever since the Firefly soundtrack captured my imagination as a college kid back in 2002. This event has become something of an annual pilgrimage for me. The Black-Eyed Suzies, Tessa McCoy & The State Birds, Charm City Junction, and Lonesome River Band all showed up and played awesome sets. Lonesome River Band was my personal favorite; their tunes had a powerful Newgrass sound.

Carlisle itself is a powerhouse for a few reasons. Being home to an historic college, it’s developed the archetypal institutions of a college town: Trendy restaurants, bookstores, and a main drag lined with curio shops, brewpubs, and hangouts. There’s a thriving antiquing scene, not surprising given Carlisle’s deep history, from early settlement to the Civil War and beyond. It was a crossroads of several Native trails and was a munitions depot in the Revolutionary War, right before the college was chartered in 1783.

It also has coffeehouses…tons of them. The most prominent of these is Denim Coffee. The storied Denim Coffee empire began in nearby Shippensburg, but the flagship stop emerged in Carlisle in 2016. Then, the brand exploded across multiple towns in Pennsylvania. I reviewed a Denim operation years ago, so I wanted to explore what was happening in the rest of Carlisle’s coffee scene.

I attempted to do that during the festival, but there were two problems: Most of the coffeehouses were closed by late afternoon on a Saturday, and the traffic was not fun given that there was a classic car show in town the same day as the Bluegrass show. That’s a lot of places *not* to park, so I knew I had to come back later. Collect info now, return later to actually do coffee. The place I found that seemed interesting and unique was Mad Roast. To quote the Zoomers, there was just a “vibe.”

Vibe counts for a lot in coffee culture. Mad Roast has a distinctive one of those, and I’m still trying to place it. It was so…colorful. It wasn’t like a bohemian den or cavernous bookshop. Nor was it trendy and commercial. It was its own thing. It was also understaffed. I’ve noticed that at a lot of coffeehouses these days. Economy, I get it. That said, there was a clear demand not just for coffee, but for expensive coffee.

One young and overworked barista with a thousand-yard stare was trying to handle a line of customers backed up nearly to the door…and every single one of them (except me) ordered the most elaborate and expensive caffeinated concoctions imaginable. Few things exasperate me like wanting a simple black coffee and having to wait because the only person in front of me ordered eleven triple-dipple mocha-choka organic half-cafs with exotic Alaskan kelp or something. I tried not to give a look, but I knew I was. When I finally got to order, I made it clear they did a good job given the situation.

Here’s a good place to mention that you can’t actually get a drip coffee here. That’s one downside. The closest they can do is an Americano. Here’s the good news: The coffee is Square One coffee from Lancaster, PA. More good news: The barista makes it strong. I mean, this was a brew. The richness cut the sour astringency (yes, it’s innate if your drink is too watered-down, don’t fight me on this) of the thinned-out espresso that is an Americano. A person in front of me intoned that their coffee was too strong. Heretic. Just put some dang water in the…never mind. I thought the extra potency in mine suited the typical richness that’s kind of a Square One hallmark. Caramel and dark fruit were on display here, and it was beautiful.

Before I left, I did manage to get the other person behind the counter (an equally overwhelmed cook) to tell me more about the establishment. It’s only been established recently. January 1st. It’s fantastic to see places like this thriving in a town with an already-established coffee culture. By the way, if fancy-schmancy coffee is your thing, that’s certainly Mad Roast’s niche, because in the end, their mixtures were as lavishly candy-hued as the decor. Getting coffee here is as much about dopamine as caffeine, I gather.

I started my car. That’s when I heard it: ca-chunk, ca-chunk, ca-chunk. It felt like I was backing over something. Nope. It was the engine choking. OK, so that’s one thing more exasperating than the person in front of you taking forever at the counter. Maybe it was karma for my impatience. At least the car didn’t strand me. The engine light stayed on, but the reverberations quit, and I was able to take the backroads home from Carlisle. It felt like ignominious defeat. Like, when you picture ignominious defeat specifically, that’s how I felt. Like I was slinking home with my hoodie over my head.

Really, though, it wasn’t defeat. I found the coffeehouse (and it was good), got it reviewed, and started the blog post in my notes before the car started getting wobbly. I’ve gotten to coffeehouses before and experienced such bitter disappointment that I haven’t even reviewed them. Mad Roast was certainly not that. There were also a slew of accidents on the highway that day, as I’d found out when I got home. Taking the backroads home for the sake of the engine got me home safely. One has to wonder. That’s all. I’m ruminating out loud. That’s what blogs are for, right?.

I think I’m just on edge. This has been a summer of managed expectations. I’ll leave it at that. If there are any more festivals worth going to in August, I’ll find coffee there. I also have a family reunion up north, so that’s another possibility…assuming my car isn’t a paperweight.

Truth be told, I’ll walk to coffee if I have to. If I were pretty, I could get my simps to send me coffee and do an ‘unboxing’ and get a million views. Well, I don’t have simps, so you’re stuck taking road trips with me in my occasionally-functional vehicle. It heads to the shop today, so cross your fingers.

And stay caffeinated.