Chicago:
Population: 2,833,321
# of housing units: 1,152,868
Size: 227 square miles
Coffee scene — 0.
Iowa City:
Population: 62,649
# of housing units: 26,083
Size: 24 square miles
Coffee scene: is and will always be — The Java House
Coffee Mecca
Behold, friends and readers and those who fall into both categories, the best coffee in the world.
"I know you think of me when I'm not around."
As an alumni of University of Iowa, I expected the move to Chicago to open the gates to even better coffee shops. Just by size alone, there had to be something equally, if not substantially better than Java House coffee! Wrong, again.
Chicagoans lazily stumble into the closest chain coffee shop around. With a white-knuckled-grip on their piping hot liquid ink from Starbucks or over-sugared Dunkin’ Donuts coffee, Chicagoans may have made their train but missed their journey to a better coffee. (Did you think I missed Caribou Coffee? Right. Who drinks Caribou Coffee??) Shops serving Intelligentsia coffee are getting closer to reaching perfection – but not quite there yet. Like settling for Weber Grill when Gibson’s was booked.
And so I had to travel 221 miles to a city that is 1/10th of the size to drink the best cup of coffee — Java House coffee. It’s a quaint little place where I did much studying as a student.
Where Smart People Come for a Caffeine High.
In fact this is where I started to drink coffee more regularly. Before this place, I was a no-coffee kind of girl. But then I found my vice and nothing has ever been the same! Like a pending a ulcer! Go good choices!
But too many kids like me were camping out trying to study to get their 4-year-college-degree which would lead them on the path of success and happiness. Sorry to break it to you studiers, but the degree is your machete, not your path. It helps get you through the brush, but you’re still going to have to blaze your own trails.
No Laptops. No Studying. No Life Answers. Now Drink your Damn Coffee and Go.
After all, why should a coffee house be the camp-out site for future leaders of the world? It should be a place to serve the best damn coffee. But just in case people decide to approach us with contempt, Sir Opti brings his own reservation signs for moments like these:
I wish I was kidding.
He wanted to enjoy his coffee in peace:
Quench your thirst and quantify your happiness.
He’s been drinking coffee since he was 5-years-old so he doesn’t need the thrill of the whip cream on top. He just wants his caffeine straight up to go straight down his gullet.
And after I read the Daily Iowan for which I used to write:
DI: Where brilliant bloggers get their start
And ogle at the housing costs of Iowa City (quickly followed by despair at what Chicago is offering for the same price):
I finish my sweet, sweet cup of joe as I dream about the next time my taste buds meet again with their grounds o’ joy. And because I am hopeful that Chicago will get their coffee scene into gear or I will buy that house on 3.5 acres for a quarter mil.. I know that this cup of coffee is half full.
"Damn Straight."
