Tuesday! Tuesday!

Well, on top of the Big Eat every Tuesday in January, there are more Tuesday specials at Triad Coffee Shops. Every Tuesday, Krankies Airstream gives fabulous, almost-50% breaks on espresso drinks.

This Tuesday - yep, Jan. 18, Tazza Cafe Bistro is offering a free coffee, free hot chocolate, or free V8 fusion from 7 to 11 a.m. Celebrate the new look & the new menu with Tazza!

Also on Jan. 18, Happy 9th Birthday to my coffee shop buddy Catherine!

Coffee shop fans, please tell us about any other deals you find out there! We'll be right here waiting, waiting, we'll be right here waiting for you.

Oops, the 80s rears its head again!

What a week for coffee!

BRRR. CoffeeCat is freezing, even with all the good coffee at cozy Triad Coffee Shops. Here's a treat to get your mind off the freezing cold: a coffee shop filled with cats! Yes, we just have to travel to Japan to enjoy it.


http://www.jonathanbrilliant.com/



I enjoyed seeing the Have Sticks, Will Travel World Tour by Jonathan Brilliant at the McColl Center for Visual Art in Charlotte. The only thing that could have been more delightful than a sculpture of woven (not glued, taped, or stapled) coffee stir sticks would have been a cup of coffee to enjoy while walking around and under the sculpture. Brilliant also created a sculpture from paper sleeves and a portrait of coffee lids. If you want to see it, you have until Jan. 8. I'm waiting for word on a dismantling event. If there is one, I'll blog about it!



Triad Coffee Shops continue to have great shopping opportunities for fans who want to shop local and buy gifts off the beaten path! Krankies Craft Fair was a huge hit but there are still plenty of treats at Triad Coffee Shops. Check out CoffeeCat's likes & friends on Facebook for quick links to items such as freshly roasted coffee, baked goodies, unique gift items, and more!



Hey, why does CoffeeCat get cappucino??
This "meezer" is available for adoption
at http://www.va.siameserescue.org/

 CoffeeCat gave up some much-needed coffee shop time to attend my first cat show this week. Purrrr. What a great feeling, to be surrounded by cats while helping to raise money for Siamese Cat Rescue Center! Can't wait to volunteer again, but next time I am going to plan a little better and make it a coffee road trip. Coffee, cats, and rescue - I'll call this "Coffee Road Trip: Paradise."

A Statement on the Human Condition



Photo by Krankie's Airstream. See
the original in all its museum-
quality artsy-ness on Facebook.

 Looking at this photo by Krankie's Airstream made me think about how great life is in North Carolina. We drive cars. We buy freshly roasted coffee that someone brews for us. We don't have to get out of our cars for it. We pay cash money and have enough left for a tip. The barista smiles and genuinely wants us to have a nice day.

Sure, not everyone in the Triad has a car or the disposable income for a $2 cup of coffee. Not everyone drives on beautiful Reynolda Road to work every day. Heck, not everyone even has a job to drive to.

But, if you're a coffee shop fan and a fan of this blog, chances are, you're doing OK. We don't live in a war-torn country or a dictatorship. We don't live in an impoverished land that's been stripped of its natural resources and devastated by an earthquake. We live in a community that's prosperous enough to help those among us who aren't.

If you have any doubts how lucky we are, take a look at the Winston-Salem Foundation's annual report. Much more than a year-end financial statement, this report showcases the amazing generosity of our city's founding families and the contemporary heroes who continue to give and sustain the legacy. Watch the video about Senior Services and Meals on Wheels on page 23. Do you see the preschooler pushing a cart of food? What a kid! What a mom to introduce him to giving at this age.

If you think you've had a rough day or things aren't going so well for you, stop thinking! Start looking! Look for the generosity that's all around us. Savor the luxuries we take for granted, like hot chocolate made with real milk and Ghirardelli chocolate (thank you, Coffee XChange!). And thanks to our Triad Coffee Shops and Smitty's Notes for reminding us how good we have it around here!

Art Happens

at Triad Coffee Shops! Check out this album of photos taken at Krankie's in Winston-Salem. What about others? Tell us about your photos, art, music, drama, and comedy happening at Triad Coffee Shops.

World Peace at your local coffee shop?

NASA photo uploaded from about.com

A coffee shop is its neighborhood.

To be successful, a coffee shop has to have something in common with its neighbors, something that attracts them to come in, come back, and spend money. My neighborhood doesn't have a locally- owned coffee shop, so I enjoy trying out other people's neighborhoods.

For example, I enjoy The Coffee Break, Tate Street, and Coffeeology, all located in the UNC-G neighborhood. All of these appeal to students, professors, and the professionals who live in the surrounding neighborhoods. Even so, each shop has a different look & different energy.

iCoffee in Summerfield is in the neighborhood of Lake Brandt, so it appeals to people on their way to the lake. It's also a hub for the Northern Guilford community and reaches out to the students and families through student art displays, concerts, and gatherings for sports teams.

Sitting on the patio of Krankie's in Winston-Salem, I noticed that the county detention center and one building of the Piedmont Triad Research Park rise over the old industrial city block on which Krankie's is situated. What kind of neighborhood is made up of a jail, a biomedical research building, railroad tracks, and a coffee shop in an old warehouse?

Spend some time listening to the poets and musicians who perform at Krankie's, and you'll feel the neighborhood. It's the neighborhood of innovation, energy, and creativity. It's a crossroads of artistic, scientific, and ordinary people. Some poets rhyme about life on the streets and how it landed them in that jail across Chestnut Street. They're using their energy and creativity to innovate new, better lives for themselves, and they're not afraid to get on stage and let people know.

Other poets rhyme about diseases and human conditions that are being confronted head-on at the research park. While scientists in those labs develop new, life-saving drugs and grow human organs to replace diseased organs, a poet named Eurycide White shouts a poem called, "**** you, cancer."  The disease took people she loved, and across the street, strangers are taking on disease. Does it get any more real than this?

Coffee shops don't rate the same coverage on front pages and newscasts as health care reform, Middle Eastern peace talks, or the war in Afghanistan. You and I know that. But real life is happening in and around Triad Coffee Shops. Take some time to explore your neighborhood coffee shop, or someone else's. You never know - you just might be within arm's reach of world peace or a cure for cancer.

UPDATE: See Life in Forsyth's wonderful photo

Coffee Shop Lovers' Treat

One of the great things about coffee shops is they attract people who like to read. Many coffee shops have a bookshelf for patrons to browse while they visit. There's usually a copy of the daily paper for anyone to enjoy. And there are games like Scrabble and Scattergories, which show that word lovers gather in these places.

So coffee shop lovers, in my book, are going to love the BookMarks Book Festival in the downtown arts district of Winston-Salem on Sept. 11. It's not just that it will be packed with best-selling authors, book-related activities for kids, workshops for aspiring writers, and places to buy books. It's also within walking distance of Chelsee's Coffee and Brew Nerds, and not much further away are Krankie's and Caffe Prada. CoffeeCat is anticipating an iced coffee drink!

Among the authors scheduled to attend is the wonderful, talented, funny, and animal-loving creator of Mutts comic strip - Patrick McDonnell. Yes, in Winston-Salem {Sept. 5 update: McDonnell has posted on his blog about the festival}! I recently subscribed to the Daily Mutts by e-mail so that at least once a day, I'll have an e-mail that makes me smile!

For coffee shop fans anywhere in the Triad, BookMarks is worth the drive to Winston-Salem and can double as a Coffee Road Trip. Fans, tell me who you can't wait to see at BookMarks!

Top 10: Why coffee shop entertainment beats the opera

Tyler Nail, July Shuffle winner

Live from the Winston-Salem Shuffle at Krankie's
1. Wear whatcha want
2. Get there when ya want (just don't miss the whole show)
3. Getcher caffeine fix anytime
4. Local talent honing their chops - where else can you hear performers on guitar, ukulele, piano, keyboard, and an 11-year-old singing "If I was living in space?" (BTW, if he lived in space, he sang, "I'd have lasers in my pants, just in case")
5. Judges chosen from audience - no professional critics, no gong!
6. No intermission - get up and move around when you want to stretch or mingle
7. Did I say, getcher caffeine?
8. Entertainment, drink & dessert for $10
9. No age limit - performers & fans ages 11 and up!
10. CoffeeCat can blog live from the coffee shop!

What are your top 10 reasons to enjoy coffee shop shows?

What rhymes with . . . ?

Not much time
to write on the blogspot
CoffeeCat is rhymin'
at a Triad coffee shop

If you are tired of not-so great summer blockbusters or you need lively entertainment to get you through the dog days, Triad Coffee Shops have something for you! Tate Street hosts the Triad Poetry Meetup on 4th Saturdays and Krankie's hosts the Piedmont Slam on 4th Thursdays. Details on the Events Page.

These events are lively, thought-provoking entertainment for grown-ups who like to laugh, cry, think, and marvel at the amazing talent we have in the Triad. Spoken word and open mic works are NOT to be confused with those poems you read in English class . . . trust me, I hated every one of 'em (sorry, Shakespeare. Ahem, just kidding, professors).

And, hey, if you start now, you might write the killer haiku that wins a prize at Krankie's. Seriously, the haikus at Krankie's are hilarious. Anyone in the audience can write a haiku on a napkin or scrap of paper and give it to the slam master to read on stage.

Are there other coffee shops that host events for peeps with mad word skills? If so, please let us know so CoffeeCat can spread the word (and spare you her bad slang and even worse poetry!).

So many coffee shops . . .

so little time to savor them all. Readers of Smitty's Notes named these The Best of Winston-Salem 2010:

Winner: Krankie’s
Runner Up: Brew Nerds
Honorable Mention: Cafe Roche

As you know, CoffeeCat likes 'em all, but each for a different reason (refer to July 30 post).

Smittyheads, you have 1 year to try all the coffee shops in the twin cities so you can be an informed voter in 2011. In the meantime, keep coming back to Triad Coffee Shops & tell us about 'em.

And if you live in W-S and don't subscribe to Smitty's Notes, why on earth not?