Author Archives: coffeehouseguy80

Well, here we are, the promised Leg 2 of this journey through the very center of Central Pennsylvania. It actually wasn’t all that much of a journey, merely a jaunt down the main drag of Lewisburg! My next stop was to the place that was recommended to me by the barista I mentioned at the religious coffee shop outside Milton. She told me that this coffeeshop of all the ones in the little college town was *the* hangout. And Lewisburg is a town filled to the brim with little hangouts given that it’s populated by thousands of college students effectively in the middle of nowhere.

Well, I took the stroll down the street that she recommended and here it was. Amami. You know, the thing that immediately struck me about this place was that it screamed “college town coffee shop.” Look down at the pics below for some good examples of why; the band stickers, the narrow urban architecture, the young people in a hurry with their gear. It all bespoke of a far more urban setting than Lewisburg itself. But cosmopolitanism is a state of mind, and you carry the city with you if you’re of the mindset.

If I seemed a bit underwhelmed by some of the previous coffeehouses, that’s because of sort of was. Now, don’t get me wrong, they weren’t poor coffee spots at all. There were simply no standouts thus far. That all changed here. I got the Americano. That’s essentially an espresso, but a drink-sized one. Now, Americano can be tricky to make. It takes some skill to get the proportion of coffee right, and if the quality of the water is off, the whole thing will taste like bad tapwater. Nothing could have been further from the truth here. This coffee had an interesting floral quality that gave it a unique flavor, along with a truly robust mouthfeel. This was really a joy to drink.

I’m pretty sure that the reason for this awesome quality is Davide Della Pietra, the owner of the establishment. He obviously cares about the quality here; the website makes note of his “vision” to bring an authentic Italian experience to the town. Indeed, the coffee is sourced from a company called Segafredo based in Villorba, Italy. It’s been around since 1973 and is known for its quality product. They bill themselves as “The Ambassador of the Italian Coffee Culture.” So here we have a man who has a vision linking himself with a source of beans that does the same. I guess magic was inevitable.

No, I’m not getting wistful about college towns even though they’re my territory of choice. The coffee really was that good. I didn’t try the Paninis, but they looked good as well, and if I was a leaf-eater of any sort I might have had one. But such was not to be; the coffee was the target here and it’s one that I hit. Or rather, I should say, it was itself a hit.

After this lovely cap to a long trip, I headed back down to Harrisburg. I promptly broke down on my way out of Lewisburg. The overdrive kept kicking on and off for no apparent reason and there I was, stuck along the side of the road sipping my fancy coffee.  It took digging the manual out of the glove compartment and pressing buttons and hitting toggles for a good half hour before I finally got the thing moving above 20 miles per hour. That’s the funny thing about adventures; things will suck, things will rock, but in final estimation of things, the sucking is part of the rocking because at least you know you’re alive, and that’s what puts the whole experience over the edge to the “rocking” side. Ah well, that’s enough vagabondery for now. The next target is even further north. Tune in and see what I mean. Until then, stay thirsty.

the signage…

more signage…

signage for literally everything…

the coffee…

the coffee up close…

Happy New Year! Been a while since I posted, I know. Typical holiday stuff. Visits with the family, big feasts courtesy of my Mom, and too much money spent by all of us on all of us were the main characteristics. Oh, and a week off work! That week off included a little vacation I planned for myself up near Milton Pennsylvania. Now, anyone close to me knows that the majority of my family hails from the upper Susquehanna valley and that I’m prone to make a lot of trips to that area for that reason. It’s surprising therefore that I’ve never really explored the coffeehouse scene in that area. Maybe it’s because I discounted it entirely. I mean, it’s in the Trump-y parts of rural Pennsylvania, not the college-y parts near Philly. And yet, you’d often be surprised what you’ll find when you dare to look.

Now, I *should* say that family was the reason for seeking out a coffeehouse in this particular area. Not so much. Actually the idea came from watching The Walking Dead. Yeah, I know they’re in Virginia, and the Commonwealth is in Ohio…but I started wondering if anything of Pennsylvania would survive. Cut to the research montage and you’d find me looking up population densities, terrain layouts, food distribution centers. Ah, there it is. Weis Market has its main distribution center right in low-population, gun-loving Milton. And it’s one of the largest food distribution centers in North America. You can see how my curiosity sprung from there. I wanted to see the area for myself. Of course my thoughts went to if there would be coffee in those Miltonian FEMA camps of my mind, so I did a quick Google search and found some interesting possibilities.

My journey begins at Tastecraft cafe in nearby Lewisburg, home to Bucknell University. Actually, the journey didn’t start there, it started with a wrong turn when I went north of there to Milton itself. I saw a blip on the map for a coffeehouse called The Well. Nice place, but there was an issue…I had no idea it was attached to a church!

I don’t review religious or ethnic coffeehouses as a rule because coffeehouses were historically a place where freedom of thought bloomed during a time when church and tribe ruled the people’s collective consciousness. Coffeehouse culture is a reaction *against* the confines of tradition. That’s why I don’t include them here. Yeah yeah, disagree if you want; it’s a free country after all. Thank a coffeehouse for that. Try to change my mind; I welcome debate! Nevertheless, the people themselves there were quite kind, especially a girl named Cassie who gave me some truly awesome suggestions for what to do in Lewisburg. More on that in a later post in this series.

Finally, on to the coffeehouse that I did visit. On my way back down the highway towards home after visiting Milton and driving around its chaotic backstreets (and discovering a gorgeous library on a hill), I made my way back down the highway to college-town Lewisburg. Wow has this place changed since I was here ten years ago. There were so many new businesses lining the main drag that it brought back all those memories of being a happily-cloistered college student. May I one day be so again.

The first cafe that good old Google Maps led me to was Tastecraft. It’s located on Market Street and you can reach it pretty quickly from the bridge across the Susquehanna river if you’re coming from the east. When I went in, it was pretty quiet, but in a homey sort of way. It’s not one of those places that’s on the main street that feels hurried in a rush-hour sort of way. The cafe is cave-like in the best ways. Though unlike a cave, it’s staffed by polite college people.

Apparently they were founded in 2016 as a specialty foods place in Mifflinburg and branched out into coffee from there. I had the house blend and it was quite enjoyable. It’s wasn’t too remarkable in any one way, but it was smooth and balanced, that much is certain. A solid medium roast that wasn’t too harsh on the stomach. A really good thing about this cafe is that they have a whole smorgasbord of foods including ice cream to accompany your coffee. I’m sure this place is packed when school is in session, though I was surprised that they didn’t have any music events here given the versatility of the space. Oh well, at least the liquids were on point and that’s what counts. For some reason it only got two and a half stars on Yelp, but people on there are like the girls on Four Weddings, but at every damn place. That’s why you’ve got me.

From here, I continued westward on Market and on to my next stop. I’ll be writing about that in a few weeks. Stay tuned!

the welcome…

the multitudinous wares…

the comfort…

This coffeehouse was one of those unexpected finds. A lot like the Nuclear Bean that I reviewed before, it was the product not of a search for coffee, but as completely separate mission that left me in need of coffee. This time the mission was to check out a place that might be in need of a freelance writer (like myself) in Mechanicsburg. We’ll see how that pans out; it’s great being a pen for hire because of the flexibility…but that drive around the beltway to get you to where you’re needed will sap your energy quickly. Enter Cafe 62.

The cafe is located right on the main drag of Mechanicsburg, PA. People around here know Mechanicsburg as a town that has a lot of people moving through it every day. The nearby Rossmoyne Plaza is a center of commerce, so what is ostensibly a “small town” in Central PA actually becomes a place bustling with commerce on any given weekday. There are a million little shops here catering to that hungry and thirsty crowd.

According to the owner (who was rather tirelessly running around grabbing supplies and catering to guests by herself) the coffeehouse has been around since January; another newcomer to the local coffee scene! There have, as my readers may remember, been several cafes that only started up at the beginning of this year or the end of last. When I came in, what really struck me was the “tea-room” feel of the space. From the open Bible on the wooden table, to the small nooks for sitting and drinking, to the neutral color palette of the walls, the “chill” of the interior vibe set a stark contrast to the bustle outside.

The coffee I had today (as you can see if you look at the pic below) says that it has a “heavy body” and is “excellent as espresso.” I agree with half of that only.  I wouldn’t really call this heavy bodied. At least it didn’t seem that way to me; in fact it seemed like a rather light confection. It struck me as a breakfast blend, not something really rich. It did, however, make an excellent espresso! Actually it was an Americano, same difference. In fact I didn’t even ask for an Americano, the woman at the counter just made it that way because she knew it would be best. I started to protest until I quickly realized that she was the expert and I should just shut it and appreciate that. Sometimes that’s a good move; it certainly was in this case. This roast wouldn’t work quite as well as a regular filtered coffee.

I’d like to recommend this establishment for two different groups of people: those who are part of the mad-dash commute in the mornings who need a quick cup…but also to those who want to get out of that madness. Unfortunately the cafe doesn’t host any events like live music, but it certainly offers quiet and peace to those caught up in the fast-paced flow of life on good old Trindle Road.

the sign…

the entrance, kind of…

the art…

the beans…

the good book…

other good stuff…

Like Bob Ross used to say, this was a happy little accident. I was heading down to Middletown to meet with some old college buddies at a brewery I’d never heard of called Tattered Flag. What I found (besides them), was something totally unexpected. Stuffed into the same building as the brew-works was a full-fledged coffeehouse!

I might never have known if I hadn’t gotten there rediculously early and happened to Google the words “coffee nearby Middletown PA”; in fact this was territory that I’d already tread. I visited a coffeehouse here when I first began blogging called Folklore, and was sure that I hadn’t seen any others in the nearby vicinity except for the one in Colombia, which had sadly closed. Fate, though,  has a way of filling my gullet with caffeine.

The Nuclear Bean opened in April, and is aptly named, given that the (in)famous Three Mile Island nuclear power plant is only a scant few miles from Middletown. No wonder I hadn’t heard of it; the place was pretty much new, and quite a novel idea. One of my friends had just made a Facebook post about how sad she was that there were no coffeehouses open late at night here in Central PA. This place is open until 9 PM, and in this area, most coffeehouses are indeed morning-focused, lacking the foot-traffic to make staying open late an option. Attaching the coffeehouse to a place already catering to late-night customers really does solve that issue.

The coffee that I tried was an Arabica, but it was quite a bit smoother than I find the average Arabica bean to be.  It was actually a very smooth mouthfeel initially, but in the aftertaste you pick up hints of the astringent quality that usually accompanies the Arabica and African beans. Overall a good, solid coffee; definitely a big step above what I expected from a coffeehouse attached to an alcohol-house. The barista…or was she a bartender? bar-ista? I don’t know. Anyhow, she said that the coffee was roasted by some lady in Manheim. She actually seemed contrite that the coffee wasn’t roasted right there on site. Poor girl; she has no idea what I’ve been through on this journey. You’re lucky if it’s not instant crystals at some of our local cafes.

So in the end, the only “fallout” from The Nuclear Bean was a slight caffeine withdrawal headache (with my beer partly to blame perhaps), and the desire to see more of small-town Pennsylvania in the hopes that there are more creative coffee spaces like this starting to spring up. Next month I’ll be heading to a place that I’ve deemed the most likely area of Pennsylvania to survive a zombie apocalypse. Stay tuned.

the sign…

the elements…

the intimidation…

the beans…

Now *that* was a fast summer. I bet a lot of you who read this were wondering just what happened to my posts. Is this another blog that just suddenly died a slow death and didn’t let anyone know? Did the coffeehouse guy choke on a latte and everyone missed the funeral? Did the reality quakes accompanying the blood moon erase me from existence? The last one is probably closest to the truth but no, I’m still here, remembering the Berenstein universe with the rest of you. And finally getting away for the weekend to go on a coffee run.

This last trip was actually a bit of a side-quest like the run to Shippensburg I did earlier this year. I was headed up to Sunbury this past weekend for a family reunion, so as a matter of course I looked for coffee on my map app. I wasn’t expecting to find anything; after all I’ve been up here every year for reunions and was sure that I’d exhausted the supply of local coffeehouses to visit (it’s not a renewable resource after all), so imagine my surprise when Eagle’s Wind popped up.

Turns out the cafe has only been here since January, which is why I didn’t know about it. It’s a small, family-run operation located on the famous Sunbury-area “Golden Strip” just north of Selinsgrove. It’s so named because the whole corridor is a massive transportation hub; most traffic headed north to Williamsport and New York state or south to the capital of Harrisburg has to pass through here, which makes it both a bustling center of commerce, and a traffic nightmare. Given the number of hungry travelers, a coffee house here was an idea whose time has come.

It’s easy to see the youth of this shop, both in the fresh paint and the actual youth of its staff members, one of whom was the daughter of the owner. The place looks surprisingly modernistic in style, given the down-home, Appalachian nature of the surrounding area. I love that style personally, but it remains to be seen how well the aesthetic will play with the locals! Judging by the guy happily reading the news in one of the small alcoves, the locals seem to be enjoying it just fine as long as you don’t try to take their picture (I got the sideways glance even as I pulled my phone out!). On the plus side, the staff was truly kind, the family nature of the place shining through in our interactions.

I went for whatever the house blend was; in this case it was a Columbian from a roaster called Fresh House. I have no idea where it’s from; I tried looking it up but to no avail. Maybe it’s a local micro-roaster? If anyone’s heard of it, let me know in the comments! It was a good, solid, well-made coffee. It wasn’t truly distinctive, but it was certainly good and refreshing. A bit less rich of a mouthfeel than I’m used to from a Columbian, but it was probably a breakfast blend, given that we were right on the cusp of noon when I ordered it.

I’ll be stopping here on my way to family reunions in the future most likely.  As I said before, it always puzzled me that there weren’t more coffee shops in the area. Let’s hope that this one succeeds in breaking the pattern and succeeds in bringing some much needed non-chain refreshment to the area! As an aside, in a month it will be the start of pumpkin spice season. Samhain season. Wine trail season. Academic season. Mornings of cold rain that invite melancholia and the need for a hot beverage to watch steam away in the grey air season. As such, I’ll be heading out to find new places for coffee more often than in the summer. Be ready.

the approach…

the windows…

the modernity…

the alcove…

I’m a little late with this one. This coffee mission was actually run back in the last week of April, soon after my last post was made. I was working a lot for the month afterwards, for my parents, not my boss, helping to get the family home ready for springtime. If you notice, there are no leaves on the trees in any of these pictures. That was before the heat wave that brought us the change from winter to summer within the span of a single week. Remember sweater weather? Yeah, neither do I.

This coffeehouse I visited, The Quarry, was actually on the road to Shippensburg, in the town of Carlisle. Anyone familiar with it will know it as the home of Dickenson College, and the coffeehouse itself is located right on the outskirts of the college. I came on an auspicious weekend; it was the annual spring festival that the college has during finals time, when parents and other loved ones are invited to campus. Obviously, a parking calamity ensued. After doubling back and again several times in search of a parking spot, making U-turns and dodging cops, I finally was able to get on foot and head to the cafe.

It was not what I expected. Far from being just an afterthought in an building purposed for some other use, this coffeehouse was not only a standalone building, but a rather gorgeous stone one. Built in the same style as the rest of Dickenson (grey stone, nods to the Colonial style), it reminded me more of an old mill than a quarry. This lent itself well to an interior filled with the kind of nooks and crannies in which a student cramming for finals could find a bit of solace. This was a good thing, given the bustling agora-like feeling of the first floor. A necessary sin considering the volume of students they serve! All right, all right, perhaps I shouldn’t call it a sin, though I do prefer my coffeehouses on the dark-and-cozy side.

As an aside, being a member of Generation X, I’ll never fully get used to the sight of free computers amidst the books of a study room. Ah well, such is the march of time. I decided not to stick around for too long and read as I wasn’t entirely sure that I was legally parked, so I grabbed an armload of coffee and headed out quickly.

The coffee was of a brand I’d never heard of before: Sun Coffee Roasters out of Connecticut. I tried two different coffees this time, juggling them and a few fliers and a bottled water as I made my way back to the car. The first item was their house blend of course, but the second was a thing called Mazagran. It was some kind of iced coffee with honey added. The house blend was called “Old West” and was an Indonesian single-origin coffee. It was quite earthy and as full-bodied as advertised. I like a bold, rich coffee and this fit the bill nicely indeed. Definitely a keeper. The Mazagran…well, I’m not an iced-coffee person to begin with, and this was a bit too sweet for my palette. However, if you like coffees based on sugary, alcoholic beverages (and many do like a nice Kahlua), then you should certainly sample this one.

It’s great to see new and ambitious coffeehouses like this springing up along the road I’ve traveled for so long. Truly a treat to see places like Carlisle and Shippensburg go from being towns with colleges in them to what we think of as a true college town. In the beginning of this blog I made some mention of what I feel is the philosophy behind “coffeehouse culture.” In short, it’s the notion of the coffeehouse as nexus point for the gathering of knowledge, engaging is cultural criticism, and coming together as persons. Places like The Quarry are obviously going the extra mile to be that wonderful thing. May there be more of them on the next road.

the approach…

classy exterior…

student room with student…

grand staircase…

upstairs lounge…

the history…

Come with me on a trip down memory lane. Right at the beginning of April, I decided to embark on a mission that had nothing to do with coffee, and everything to do with getting back into the world of academia. I went back to my old alma-mater, Shippensburg University, to meet with one of my old professors who is soon to be retiring. You see, I considered this woman the one saving grace of my otherwise lackluster college experience. Don’t get me wrong, I did well in school, I was a Magna Cum Laude in fact, but the experience itself was stressful. Being away from home was hard enough. The worst thing was, having grown up in the city, going to a country school was a bit of a culture shock and I really didn’t mesh well with much of the student body. That’s a polite way of saying that my class had all the jocks, cheerleaders, religious fundamentalists, and other assorted folks that my city school did not have.

Enter my professor. Name withheld for obvious reasons. She taught my favorite subject. I remember the first day of class; some girl mouthed off to her, asking if she would teach creationism as part of the lessons, and the professor, looking like a sweet little grandma, strolls up to her face and told her exactly what she thought of that. From that day on, I knew I’d met someone with the guts and fortitude that I could really respect. We hit it off, and her class became an island of joy in an otherwise mundane enterprise. She’d teach late classes and I’d walk out of the hall, my mind full of tales of distant cultures, staring up at the moon and imagining ancient days gone by.

Flash forward to now, and I’m planning to continue that journey by getting my Masters degree in either anthropology or liberal studies. That’s why I was down there. To pick her brain, get some good info going forward, and start putting my plans into action over the summer. Coffee was just a sidequest along the way this time, and oh, how I wish that the coffeehouse I discovered had been there when I was a student. It would have been haven number two.

One Bean Espresso Bar isn’t a stand-alone building; it’s part of a local hotel on the main street called Shippen Place. It’s also not aptly named, given that it sports far more than one bean, offering a multitude of coffee styles and pours. They default to giving you a pour-over if you order the regular, so I thought I’d try their current Nicaraguan house blend. I have to say, it was one of the best Central American coffees I’ve had in a long time; it certainly had the characteristic nuttiness of the a Nicaraguan, and had that buttery mouthfeel that I look for in coffee of that region. The coffee itself was from Denim roasters. Apparently it’s a local coffee roasting company, so that made me happy; I always like to sample what’s being done locally with coffee roasting. I like to think that the different methods used by different people constitute a “human terroir” of sorts.

Now, I’ve talked before about how there are certain places where you can instantly get a feel that they just really care about the craft of coffee. That feeling was embodied in the person of Sean McCarthy, the guy running the shop that day. Just from our brief conversation, you could get that he was a fellow connoisseur of the bean. When I poured my cream in my coffee (heavy by the way, as it should be), I mentioned a bad incident at a coffeehouse up in Harrisburg where I put the cream in and it granulated. I expected him to give me the usual excuses that baristas give in that situation, saying it was normal for that to happen in some coffees. He did not. He immediately recognized the importance of milk quality and proceeded to give me a few lessons on the subject! Finally, I met someone as picky about coffee as I am. OK, so maybe St. Thomas Roasters is the same (which is why I go there so often). But it was so good talking to someone around my age who saw eye-to-eye with me on the specifics. Especially in isolated Shippensburg.

Yes, that was quite a trip. And as I drove out of town, full of information and caffeine, I realized that I really did miss the old place more than I thought. There were good times there, even if there weren’t as many as I would have liked. We like to see ourselves as survivors of a bad situation, and when we do that, sometimes we lose focus of how complex a situation is and view things through the lens of negativity that we should not. For sure, this coffee shop gives me hope that wherever I go, I’ll find a place where there are at least a few like minded folks who care about the things that really matter. Especially coffee.

well lit interior…

modernistic…

nod to the alma mater…

something new…

There it is. The longest title for a coffeehouse that we’ve had so far on this journey. This coffeehouse was a chance discovery; I wasn’t specifically on a mission to find a new coffeehouse to blog about, rather I was genuinely in need of a caffeine boost on my way home from Baltimore. I was attending a science fiction and fantasy convention called Farpoint, which draws thousands of people from around the Mid-Atlantic region each year. I had decided to make a day of it, going down early in the morning and coming home late in the afternoon. If there’s one thing you need to know about those kinds of events, it’s that they’re fueled entirely by coffee.

After a few hours on the road and a few hours of panel discussions, we were all hurting in the brain, so on my way home (after already having had a few cups in the morning), I pulled off the road and frantically Googled local coffee shops so I wouldn’t fall asleep at the wheel on the way back north. New Freedom Restaurant and Coffee Shop came up in the search and so I set my course. Bear in mind, I’ve never been to New Freedom itself, so that was in itself an adventure. New Freedom, located near the Maryland border but still inside Pennsylvania, is one of those blink-and-you-missed-it towns that populate Appalachia, and all too often those little burgs don’t have much in the way of coffee shops. Here was a decidedly pleasant exception.

It certainly doesn’t look like the archetypal coffeehouse from the outside. The edifice it’s part of looks more like one of the multitude of family restaurants strewn throughout the hills of the Pennsylvania countryside. It looks like food is the focus, not the coffee, though the sign on the inside corrected my perceptions immediately. When I came to the busy counter, I was greeted by the busiest person in the place; the owner Vicky, who was running back and forth trying to get the mid-afternoon crowd taken care of. It’s cool when someone is still able to be as nice as she was despite being harried from all sides. I asked for whatever the house blend happened to be.

The coffee was indeed a step up from the typical diner coffee. In my condition, I wouldn’t have stopped if it wasn’t. The coffee they used was Citavo Fine Coffee; they occupy a place in the market between “common” and “craft”, with a Columbian and Arabica being the bulk of their production. This was almost certainly the Arabica that I was tasting, judging by the acidity, but it was a pleasantly balanced cup. That’s probably because the coffee is ground on site in their rickety little metal machine (in which the owner takes much pride). This is likely why the coffee tasted quite a bit fresher than average restaurant fare as well. Pride always shows.

This is a nice little stop if you’re headed north from Baltimore and can stand a five minute detour from the big highway. It’s obviously a family place, so it would make a good place to rest on the road and re-energize. Check it out if you find yourself straying off the beaten path near the Mason-Dixon line.

the entrance…

unique coffee…

the grinder…

the boast…

If there was ever a time when Central Pennsylvania needed hot liquids, it’s now. We’re in the middle of a massive cold spell, and most people I know are beginning to hibernate for the year if they weren’t doing so already. Even a party I went to for New Years Eve Eve on Saturday night was slow, as people trickled in wearing more fur than finery. Not so I. When the weather gets cold (which I don’t like too much), I tend to do little things in defiance of the conditions. One of those things was a road trip out Jonestown Road to Jonestown itself to sample a new coffeehouse that just recently opened its doors.

One thing that’s pretty inescapable to the sensitive eye is the difference between traveling west of Harrisburg and traveling east. Traveling west or directly north leads you into the mountains and valleys of Appalachia and the unmistakable off-the-grid traditionalism that the region is famous for. Traveling to the east, you start shading into Yankeedom and the culture changes to one of small towns that are more trusting of strangers, more open to the outside world, and more likely to place a priority on local art, shifting cultures, and civic development. It’s that culture that is fertile ground for coffeehouses here, just as it was in Europe. I’ll post more about that later; for now, suffice it to say that eastern Dauphin county is a great place to road-trip.

Swatara Coffee Company was begun last November by Navy man John Noll and his wife Joanna Guldin-Noll and has become quite a community fixture since that if the line behind me was any indication. It was Joanna who greeted me with a warm welcome when I walked in from the frigid street bleary-eyed from a long drive with zero caffeine. In fact most of the people here seemed like a congenial bunch.

The coffee I got was a Guatemala Antigua. Now, this particular kind of coffee has words like “complex nuance”, “gentle”, and “light body” associated with them. This fit the archetypes well, being downright airy in the mouth. That’s the makings of a good breakfast blend of course. This particular one did have a bit of the characteristic thinness that can happen with lighter roasts, but only a bit, and that was made up for by the smooth mouthfeel that made me practically inhale the coffee. Honestly, this was a great breakfast coffee and I will be returning for more the next time I venture east.

Something else here that impressed me: the hours. Oh, am I ever disappointed by coffeehouse hours in general. So many cafes have downright wonky hours, either focusing only on the breakfast rush or the later afternoon loungers. I know, I know, coffeehouses have budgets, it takes money to run a business, and so on and so forth. It’s still annoying. Swatara however has wonderful hours; typically 6 am to 8 pm on a weekday.  They even extended their hours for the Christmas tree lighting in the square. Well done there with the whole “convenience” thing, Swatara!

I’m glad I braved the frigid temperatures to come out here. It’s something I have to do more often in the winter, especially if the reward is a picture-book small town like Jonestown. I’m in no way one of those people who believes that “the journey is the destination.” No, I gotta believe that there’s something truly cool over the horizon to justify getting out of bed. Swatara Coffee Co. is good justification for sure.

the sign…

the list…

the welcome…

the view…

the tree…

the town…

This last coffeehouse visit was more of side quest. The main mission was to visit a grad school that I might be attending soon; Villanova University. I was there visiting a History professor to get a good gauge of their program in person and to take a tour of the campus as well. It was a great experience, mostly because of the old-college atmosphere that college towns have once you get close to Philadelphia and the big east-coast cities. I know it isn’t exactly logical, but ambiance is a big consideration for me in choosing a potential school. That, and also the people in the surrounding area. Never one to mince words, I’ll just come out and say it: I never want to end up in redneck-land again. It’s just not for me.

There are some wonderful folks out in the country of course, but after living in a city all of my life, my mind missed that background buzz of activity, as well as the atmosphere in a city that’s openly welcoming to the intellectual life. To the life of a questioner of things. Yes, Villanova is technically “small-town Pennsylvania”, but truly it isn’t. It’s a product of the Yankee Northeast, not Appalachia, and you can see it in the sepia-toned Edison lighting of boutique shops and the hoppy smell of the many humming microbrew pubs.    You can see it in the coffeehouses as well, of course.

La Colombe certainly exemplifies the upscale “college town” coffeehouse. From the industrial interior to the fast pace of the staff and clientele, the venue gives off a hip presence; an immediacy. This isn’t a place that you just sit and chill alone; it’s a place to hang out with friends and grab a cup of something that will help you stay awake through the inevitable all-nighters you’re about to pull. La Colombe is actually a U.S. based coffee roasting company headquartered in Philadelphia with several locations. The Bryn Mawr location that I visited was one of twenty nine scattered throughout the country, with a pedigree reaching back to 1994, when the coffeehouse craze of the 90s was really taking off (thank you Friends, Seinfeld, and the city of Seattle).

The coffee I got was a Corsican; a kind that I rarely get to sample. It was advertised as having “deep, dark chocolate tones and a bold coffee flavor.” I got a nice hint of chocolate, but only a hint. It honestly felt like another coffee I’d had recently at a place nearer to home. It didn’t strike me as full-bodied, but rather carefully refined and well-crafted in spite of a lack of forwardness. Perhaps mine just wasn’t as strong as I’m used to taking it, but this truly struck me as more of a well-put-together breakfast blend than anything else. Still it was quite good and did a lovely job of sustaining me through the frantic drive home through the (in)famous Turnpike traffic.

A quick warning before I sign off; if you’re going to come here, you’d be wise to do so sometime other than rush hour. I fought through the Philadelphia Main Line to get here and then fought through the Schuylkill Expressway to get home. Overall impression: Expect well-done coffee, but also expect a rather frenetic pace and a solid dose of east-coast hipsterism. Hey, at least my stubble was in good company.

the entrance…

the gear…

the patrons…

the vegetation…