Monday, January 10, 2005


the little train that could

"coffee is the engine that pulls breakfast," says scaa chief ted lingle. he's always full of pithy quotes like that, you know?

this remark is generated by the official announcement that mickey d's is going upscale with its coffee. notice it says "premium;" i think that means, "better, but not specialty."

i could be wrong about that tho' since the scaa's own website sometimes uses the term specialty and premium interchangeably.

as a consumer, i'm just glad to see any movement toward better coffee at the mass level.

and here's an interesting piece about changes in the u.s.a.'s coffee culture. . .featuring, of course, another pertinent observation by, yes, ted lingle.

and finally, speaking of coffee culture, the new italian ban on smoking in public places is to my mind a very good thing for business owners, if only they would see it. i myself don't like smoke, and mr. right has allergies.

instead of drinking coffee at the bar and running out when i was in italy last autumn, i would certainly have paid the extra to have coffee (and dessert) at a table where i could people-watch, if the smoke hadn't been so bad.

especially at the tazza d'oro! but since most people in italy don't smoke (about 70% are nonsmokers, it seems), a clever cafe owner can seize this opportunity to increase business and the size of the average check to boot.

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