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.

New Coffee Shop Stuff This Week

A smattering of news & info for coffee shop fans this week.

Simplyummy Cafe is giving a prize to one lucky fan who posts on fb, "why do you love simplyummy?"


photo uploaded from Chelsee's Coffee
- just one of the fabulous coffee shops that
brings CoffeeCat to downtown WS! 



Community Arts Cafe is now complete --- with a coffee bar! See the Coffee Shop Guide for address. Be sure to subscribe to the CAC weekly newsletter for a listing of upcoming events, delivered on Thursdays so you can plan your weekend.

Cafe Roche now offers bees wax lip balm and hand cream. Your skin will appreciate these on those breezy, cool days when you're walking the bow wow and stopping by for a treat!

CoffeeCat likes church, but wonders how everyone else can sit still so long, so early in the day, without caffeine. Is it just me? Maybe not! Chelsee's Coffee hosts a Moravian church service every Sunday morning. All customers are welcome to come in for coffee, even if you don't stay for church. Hmmm, maybe I'll give this a try.

Feed Your Brain at Triad Coffee Shops. Tired of TV, computer games, football and other less-than-entertaining-entertainment? Choose your challenge! Monday night offers a choice of French conversation or trivia, Wednesdays are Scrabble nights, and Thursdays offer a book club. Not to mention the mentally refreshing art, music, and literature you'll find at Triad Coffee Shops. Check the Events Page for details!

This is just a smattering of info! Please share your info with CoffeeCat so everyone can check it out!

Coffee Road Trip: The Seminole Trail (Route 29)

CoffeeCat and MochaMutt like to travel off the beaten path. We took well-worn paths, I-85 and I-95, to our destination of Fairfax, Virginia, so of course we had to take the James Monroe Highway and Seminole Trail back home.

Like most off-the-beaten-path travelers, we took a few detours for those tantalizing road signs that promised tourist attractions, both those created by Mother Nature and others by humans. After stopping in Madison, Va., to see a quilt shop (though neither of us quilt!), we decided to have lunch at the Piedmont Deli.

We found locally roasted coffee beans from Central Coffee and a pot of hot coffee that customers could help themselves to. We gobbled down the homemade chicken salad sandwiches before we could snap a photo, so here’s a photo of the delightful window display. It promotes all the made-in-Virginia goodies they offer, including pork, wine, and preserves. There’s also a good selection of local wine. Route 29 passes by more vineyards and wineries than we could count!

Latte art and fine art - Saturday!

latte art created by the coffee

artists at Cafe Roche

Thanks to a gem in the heart of Ardmore, you can keep the gallery hop going one more night & get your caffeine fix, too. Cafe Roche always has art on display from local artists and kicks off each show with a party! Saturday from 6 to 10 p.m. is the opening for Beamer Aston's work. Enjoy works of art & coffee, including creative combinations of espresso, ice cream, and baked goodies.

What's not to love?

The Pilgrim (well, half of it) came with tortilla chips & salsa.

Coffee pot collection at Tate Street

Tate Street Coffee House is one of those eclectic places where you see something new every time you visit. Tonight, I noticed the collection of 50 or so coffee pots that span many decades. One day I'd like to get the story on each piece.

Today, I was more focused on getting food. I didn't realize how hungry I was until I had a warm Pilgrim sandwich (turkey, cheese, and spinach on a fresh roll) and a frozen lemonade set in front of me. For a shrine to coffee, this place has great food for just a smidge more than you pay at a drive thru.

When you're surrounded by posters of American music & literature icons, tons of local art, and the smell of fresh coffee, the drive through lane doesn't seem one bit appealing.

Don't let the name fool you -- more and more coffee shops are offering good eats and frozen treats!

Morning Chore

Tip, tip, tip. I hear quiet footsteps on the wood floor and know what’s coming.

“I’m going to make COFFEE,” my niece squeals.

I open one eye and see bright brown eyes, a smile as big as her face, and curly, light brown hair swirled all about her tiny head. At five, my  niece is so petite that her face is barely above eye level when I am horizontal on my bed. I wish she would sleep past 7 a.m. (6 a.m. on weekends). But, she is an eager helper and as she bounds down the stairs, I marvel that she thinks it is a privilege to help me make coffee.

It's hard to hold onto that childhood ability to find joy in small things, especially ones that require work. But on a really rotten day, carving out a sliver of time for a small thing you enjoy is a great pick-me-up. That's why I love coffee shops. While I'm there, even if just long enough to order a drip coffee, it's all about the coffee and whatever I find inside . . . whether it's a brief conversation with a friendly stranger, a new display of art, or a seat by the window, watching the world go by.

Discovering the coffee shop

I first discovered coffee shops when I moved to Winston-Salem in 1993. Suddenly, I learned that coffee wasn’t just for mornings. My sister, friends and I enjoyed poetry slams at the Horse’s Mouth in the heart of downtown and listened to up-and-coming bands at Morning Dew on Burke Street in the West End. Tate Street Coffee in Greensboro was an attraction where we took our out-of-town friends. In coffee houses we found the opposite of the smoke-filled, strobe-lighted, eardrum-bursting nightclubs that were “the” night life for college students. At the coffee house, everyone could get a grown-up yet non-alcoholic drink, stick to a tight budget, and hear the conversation.


More than a decade later, as a graduate student, I rediscovered coffee houses in the Triad. I appreciated calm but busy coffee houses like Café Roché in Winston-Salem and The Coffee Break in Greensboro. They provide a great place for coffee and reading by day, and conversation with friends by night. I’ve also discovered that coffee shops are much more than a place to gather for lattes and chai. New shops such as Krankie’s, Brew Nerds, and Chelsee’s, all in Winston-Salem, are putting a new spin on coffee shops and welcoming new concepts and new customers of all ages.

Winston-Salem’s Brew Nerds on Hanes Mall Blvd. is a glass, brightly-lit, ultra modern hot spot for Wii tournaments and trivia contests. The owners of Krankie’s transformed an old warehouse into an arts and entertainment destination where customers can watch documentary films, shop at a weekly farmers market, and visit nearby galleries and shops also housed in what they now call “The Wherehouse.” Krankie’s customers give it props as a good place to drink a glass of wine on Saturday night and read the newspaper over coffee on a Sunday morning. Some Saturday nights you can find gospel concerts at Juicy Java in Kernersville. iCoffee in Summerfield offers bluegrass music some nights and a gathering spot after Friday night football games.

The desire for good coffee and a place to enjoy it is universal. Coffee shops are great places to drink tea, smoothies, and even beer. And since people come to coffee shops for different reasons, you can be sure there’s a place and a time for any of them. To write your great novel, most coffee shops would be the perfect place on a Sunday morning or a Saturday afternoon. To meet new people, try Friday night art openings, concerts almost any night of the week, or Saturday mornings while walking your dog. To enjoy the literary arts, there are poetry slams, book signings, and scrabble tournaments.

In this blog, I’ll tell you about upcoming events at Triad coffee shops. Want me to visit your favorite coffee shop? Want to promote an event? Let me know about it.