I want to start an "Instructions for Visitors" for the USA section, similar to the one we have for the Italy section. I was thinking all the Americans on the board could post on this thread how our local cafe works. The place where you go in the mornings for coffee and whatever.

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I will get it started. Write about how and what you can order. It is not a review of a coffee shop, but a description of how it works. In Italy caffes work pretty much the same everywhere (I think there are 3 different ways you can order and pay), but in the US every place sets its own rules.

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Santa Fe, Downtown Subscription

Most mornings we walk through our neighborhood to the local coffee shop "Downtown Subscription". This is not part of a chain, but is a locally owned business.

Seating
There is seating inside and outside. The outside seating is very disorganized. You will usually find groups of plastic chairs and tables spread out in two outside areas. Some umbrellas are there too and some areas get shade from walls or trees. In summer, you want to sit in the shade (the sun is strong here). In winter, in the sun. You can move chairs, tables and umbrellas around.

How to Order
To order, go inside and line up at the cash register. The menu is on the wall behind the cash register and counter. The list of bagels available that day is on the top of the drinks fridge behind the counter. Pastries, cakes and pies are on the counter and on a shelf under the counter. These are not self serve. Wait in line until a counter person asks for your order. Espresso type drinks (espresso, cappucino, latte, etc.) take longer to make (they are made by the person who takes your order). American style coffee is served immediately from a big thermos. They will prepare your drink and your food and put it on the counter. Then they ring up your order and you pay (except if you are having a bagel toasted, see below).

Milk and sugar are in an area on the end of the counter, opposite the cash register. You can also get glasses of water here. And there is self serve microwave. If the milk container is empty, catch the eye of a counter person and get them to refill it.

Take your drink and food and find yourself a seat. If there are two of you, it is a good idea to send one person off to find a seat outside while the other orders. You can reserve a seat by putting your hat on it (we all wear sun hats here).

If you ask for a bagel, they will toast it. You have to wait at the counter after you have paid, until the bagel is ready. They then put it on a plate and hand it over the counter to you.

Refills
One free refill on coffee, ice coffee or ice tea. Not on espresso drinks. To get your refill, bring your empty cup and stand at the counter in front of pastries. When someone gets a free minute, they will give you a refill. This saves you having to stand in the line if it is long. If there is no line, or just one person, it is easier to line up again.

Food Available
Coffee, tea, espresso drinks, juices (bottled). Bagels with butter and jam, or creamcheese, or pesto. Toast. Croissants, scones, other pastries, pies, cakes, cookies. Sandwiches in the fridge behind the cash register. And a few other things that you can heat up yourself in the microwave.

Other Things
This is also a magazine store - a huge selection.

Hello Pauline,
This is a brilliant idea for people like Richard and me who adore coffee (even though I now have to restrict my caffeine intake) who will be travelling to the States for the first time in October.
I guess it is even more important that my two cups are the best available,if you see what I mean!
The hints that you have already posted are invaluable.
Wendy

First of all, I'm comparing all this to Italy. I had lived here for 6 years before moving to Boulder. And before I moved to Rome, coffee shops were not very common.

When we lived in Boulder, there was a coffee shop that had signs all over the place saying "European Seating". Cesare (hubby) kept asking, "What is European seating?"

Ordering a caffè latte sometimes got me a blank stare. It's just a latte.

Everyone always bussed their own tables; there were dish bins near the door to put your cups, plates and silverware.

There were newspapers available to read.

There was a good bagel shop next door and I was surprised to see people come in, order a coffee and sit down with a bagel from next door.

The expresso machine always looked very dirty. This was actually the case in all coffee shops in Boulder. It was just covered with coffee; apparently they only cleaned it once a day. The people working it were also always covered with coffee. I always wondered why they had to make such a mess of things.

Steph

Pauline
What a great thread!!

Cuppa coffee?

Two little words. That's all it used to take to order the morning eye-opener.

Not anymore.

Now at Starbucks, it can take up to 14 words to order a "venti latte with two Sweet'N Lows, nonfat milk and a triple shot of espresso."

Add all the other syrup and milk choices and you could end up with a "vente soy carmel macchiatto with room, no whip, a red-eye shot in a grande cup to go"

It's no wonder Starbucks thought we coffee drinkers needed a little help with our coffee ordering, or the science of "customology," as they prefer to call it.

A few months back Starbucks launched a marketing campaign to educate coffee drinkers about their options.

The campaign included a 24-page booklet, "Make It Your Drink," describing some of the thousands of ways you could order a coffee from your Starbucks clerk -- excuse me, barista.

The idea was to entice customers who order the same drink each visit to try something new.

If you read the booklet, you learned that you can order your coffee "breve," "con panna" or "restretto," three of the 50 or so terms defined in "Make It Your Drink."

And these are just the coffee choices ..... now they serve food ...... makes you really long for just a cuppa coffee!!

Oh for the days when you could stop into a coffee shop (in the old NY sense --- Steve F you are old enough to remember ), or a Chock Full O'Nuts and order a coffee regular. What was this? A cup of coffee with milk (no choices yet on the milk). Alternative was coffee black.

Ignoring Starbuck's, the way I get coffee in my favorite place is to walk over to the little row of heated thermoses (thermi?), pick a large or small paper cup and fit it with a thermal sleeve. Then fill my cup with coffee of choice ("regular", flavor of the day, decaf) and add sweetener and/or milk of choice (regular, skim, half and half). Then pay the cashier. If I want a muffin or roll, I point to one of them in the covered container and get the cashier to put one in a little basket for me. I find a seat and read my paper, drinking my coffee.