Mission Accomplished - the real thing

The quest? A perfect latte. I had asked the doorman at the hotel about independent coffee shops, but he only knew of the local Starbucks and Peet's. He did direct me to a local chain, Boudin Bakery, nestled into the Macy's building. It had a local feel, and a good coffee and sandwich, but that was largely due to the wonderful bread (which he told me that they baked in the basement...jury still out on that truth.) The latte, while tasty, lacked flair.

I knew that there just had to be local shops still in business. Corporations couldn't have pushed all of them off the streets. I was listening to the local Twitter, and tweet displayed for a blog describing local shops in this neighborhood. I opened the blog and read about two places that interested me: The Blue Bottle Cafe and Samovar Tea Lounge. He did a great job describing the location of The Blue Bottle, because it was off of the main streets and tucked away behind a major building. Energized, I took to the streets to discover this treasure. Jessie Street is broken by major buildings, so I had to stay on Mission to get to 5th Street. I found Jessie St and walked through the plaza, searching for the Blue Bottle. As I came to the end of the plaza and looked around, I saw it. A subtle Blue Bottle sign on the corner of a building.

This was the place and I anxiously walked towards the entrance.

Once inside, I could see that it was "authentic" and looked for signs of "chain". There were none. No cloned products. Just coffee stuff. And a barista. I put in my order and looked around.

This was an industry strength machine, and I had no idea what was going on. A lot of glass tubs and drips and burners.
I saw a "home version" of the device sitting on one of the shelves, so I am going to use this to figure out this coffee making technique. The typed sign on the box says that this is a "siphon kit" with siphon top and bottom, bamboo paddle, filters, charming siphon primer, half a pound of single origin coffee, and a bunsen burner, all for just $140. Such a deal.

The mission was an extreme success. The double latte was beautiful and tasted incredible. Success! See Shannon Clark's blog about the area at http://tinyurl.com/dfc39a.

Additional Note: The Blue Bottle Coffee Company has an interesting story and a smallness that makes it big in my book.

Organic Coffee Company

I think that this is a chain or at least a franchise. At first I thought that it was a local shop, but when I got to the counter I saw packaged products. Coffee is served extremely hot and strong. I need to sit for a while and chill.

After a while, the coffee also chilled a little so that I was able to drink i t. Thumbs down. I don't really like it.

Last RoadRunner Hockey game

Nice crowd at the game tonight. This is the last game for the RoadRunners and they are either shutting down or moving out of town. We had a group of Player/Coach of the Month players to honor. That all went well. There was a nice crowd for the game for the send off.

Metro to downtown

On an adventure to Hard Rock Cafe and last RoadRunner game.

This is the new Phoenix Metro light rail. I had to take a photo early because I was too anxious to get on board to get a blurry photo of the train. Parking was easy and the nearest free spot was only about two miles from my house. Easy walk to the train stop. Ticket purchase from a machine (you need debit or credit...I brought quarters!) was $1.25 one trip, or $2.50 all day. A bargain when compared to $10 parking charge in downtown. Got on a train with standing room only (good to see!!). No one checks the system. One experienced rider told me that they will come through randomly to check for tickets. Got off the train a block from the Hark Rock Cafe. I felt so METRO!!

The return trip was just as easy. There is a very close stop between the baseball stadium and the US Airways Arena. Easy on...easy off. I'm sold on this!

Oh, and I had the Hard Rock salad mentioned in an earlier post. Yummy!

Elton John & Billy Joel live!

This was an incredible concert and we had awesome seats. As usual, the person in my line of site decided to stand up on occasion, as the lone stander in the crowd, but after four years of concert devotion, I have come to expect this.

Each artist is worth a full concert, but the two of them together more than doubles the experience. They started and ended the show together, and then each one played a full set in between. Absolutely delightful!

Started the night with dinner at Staudeneirers. (I'll check on the spelling later, if ever.)

District & High School tournament HUGE success

Great weekend and an incredibly successful event.

Tropical Salad at Hard Rock Cafe

In downtown Phoenix tonight for a RoadRunner hockey game. Stopped by
HRC for a bite.

Rock Springs, Arizona - Pie Company

Down to about 80 pies after a busy weekend. Picked up an apple and a
peach.
On the return trip from Sedona to Phoenix, I stopped at Rock Springs to pick up pies. The parking lot was packed, as usual, at 10AM. The fridge was down to a few variety of pies, with a few of each left. The woman said that they had had a very busy Saturday so most of the pies were gone.
I was a little surprised at the parking lot as there were no motorcycles parked in front. But it looks like the threat of rain and snow kept the bikes warmly stowed in the garages.
Speaking about the road trips, I17 is going through some changes close to Phoenix. The rest of the highway was awesome. The surface is smooth and all of the construction is complete. I also checked on the Sunset Point Rest Stop. This was supposed to open again in January 2009, and it looks near completion. I would have loved to pull into the rest stop during this trip. The clouds were below the rim of the mesa, so that view was incredible. I took pictures while driving, so these are not as good as they could have been.

Flagstaff, Arizona - Bisquits & gravy

Specialty of Mike and Rhonda's. We drove into Flagstaff and I wanted to stop at a little place that I remembered from the travel hockey days. We found "The Place", owned by Mike and Rhonda on the west side of the street, the main road into Flagstaff. It actually used to be called "Mike and Rhonda's" so this must be the new image. Well, it was pretty worn inside with the chair stuffing exposed, but the restaurant was packed. I wanted the breakfast that we used to get: Fried eggs, hash brown potatoes, and bisquits and gravy. When the waiter delivered the meal, it was the whitest meal that I had ever seen. I think that my recent fascination with colorful and vibrant foods has tainted my appreciation of the colorless foods. It tasted okay, but it was heavy...soooo heavy, and I couldn't eat all of it.

Oak Creek Canyon, Arizona - From the Top

Beautiful view. Breathtaking!
After the race we decided to take the drive through Oak Creek Canyon. Thea wanted to go into her favorite camping spot along Oak Creek. Nice campsites on the banks of the creek. Then we drove further so that I could show her MY favorite camping spot alongside the creek: Cabins at the Treehouse resort. We decided to continue the drive up the switchbacks to the top of the canyon to admire the view. There were about 10 Indian jewelry and pottery booths along the walkway with beautiful pieces. Someone was playing an Indian flute and the sounds floated across the viewing spots. It made it seem as if the rocks were singing. Too much drama?