Remembrance of Coffees Past
My friend Peter used to work at this coffee shop tucked away in the corner of a strip mall. It was pretty small and dark, with black tile and a black ceiling, dark tables and a few comfy couches and chairs in the back. There were the requisite old games of Scrabble and chess, and the tiny place for acoustic bands to set up or poets to read.
There was good food and great drinks at this place. Drinks we still remember fondly and wish we could have again.
OK, really one kind of drink: the coffee milk shakes. This place had the most amazing and jolt-inducing milk shakes in vanilla and chocolate. I’m sure they were horrible for you, but they tasted like a piece of paradise.
This place was mostly open when I was in high school, and it was far from my house so I didn’t get to hang out there much, but I still remember those drinks. I had one the night my brother and his girlfriend played there, and my dad cried, I don’t know why, maybe because he finally saw my brother was doing something with his life and it was good. There was another night when a friend of mine was seducing an older boy, only to desert him later in the night and leave him with me, who he was completely uninterested in. Sweet memories all because of that delicious drink.
I don’t know why the place closed. I’d like to blame Starbucks, but the only one of those we have is inside Barnes & Noble. Still, Java Straight is a big part of my high school memories, and those crack-like drinks will always have a special place in my gustatory memory.