in which I muse
Summer is clearly ending. I’m currently staying at Kim’s apartment so that I can work for a little bit more, but my last shift at Sweetwaters is on Tuesday. After then, I’m going to New York with my family for a few days to see my grandparents, and then I’ll be home for a while before going to Exeter.
Ann Arbor's coffeehouse scene just keeps perking along. Now Kerrytown
and Farmers Market shoppers in search of a caffeine hit don't even
have to cross the street to the ever-popular Zingerman's Next Door for
their cuppa. With the opening in the Kerrytown market building of a
new Sweetwaters Coffee and Tea - a franchise, owned by Chris Hutton,
of Lisa and Wei Bee's sleek but cozy Washington Street café -
the respite of a masterly macchiato or a gentle jasmine tea is right
at hand.
In many ways, the new Sweetwaters, which faces onto Fifth Avenue on
Kerrytown's ground floor, resembles the Washington Street cafe
many of us know and love: same drink menu, same emphasis on
well-prepared teas (no bags, not ever!), same salads, sandwiches,
quiches, pastries and cakes. The decor (a word you can't even
use to describe most java joints) will be familiar, too: charcoal
gray-and-black tables and cherry-wood- color chairs; areas with soft
seating; a rich wood and granite service counter backed by a mirror
with the "Sweetwaters'' name curling across a wave and punctuated by
the "chop'' for "Sweetwaters'' in ancient Chinese script. But there's
also a fireplace for cheer on cold gray days, and less clatter and
noise (somehow the coffee grinders don't make such a racket here) than
in the majority of the city's caffeine citadels.
Like the original Sweetwaters, this one feels serene. But it is also
the place to head if you like a little drama with your java, or a bit
of theater with your tea.
With glass walls set on a low wood base all around, a wide doorway
facing toward the Farmers Market and another doorway - fit for a
marquise, with its tall burgundy velvet curtains pulled back on either
side - facing toward Bob Sparrow's bustling meat and produce store,
the new Sweetwaters feels like it's on stage.
Who the players are depends on your perspective. From inside, it's the
shoppers selecting sausages and shell beans; from outside, it's
probably Sweetwaters' sippers and suppers. It feels very cosmopolitan.
With hours that go well beyond the markets and businesses at
Kerrytown, Sweetwaters fans, computer-carrying neighborhood residents
and Kerrytown patrons have already "discovered'' this latest addition
to Ann Arbor's coffeehouses.
If you're new to Sweetwaters, sample some of the café’s superb
iced lemon-ginger tea on a hot day (there are shakes and freezes,
too), or one of the green, black or herbal teas on a cool one. The
cappuccino and coffee has been good, too, on my visits - bravo to the
baristas and brewers - and so has the service.
My newest heartthrob coffee, though, is the Vietnamese coffee, which
blends coffee and chicory with hot sweetened condensed milk. I sort of
regard it as dessert in a cup; there are desserts in a glass, too, in
the form of beverages like the Napali Brew - ice-cream, espresso and
hazelnut syrup.
To go with, try a bagel, one of the fresh, copious salads, a vegetable
wrap or a slice of quiche.
There's soup every day, and, for a non-liquid dessert, lots of cakes
and pastries. The poppyseed bread, laced with streaks of cream cheese,
is a knock-out.
Then settle in to study a book or the passersby. It's terrific entertainment.
is a review of Sweetwaters that ran in the Ann Arbor News, and I’m offering it as evidence that the place where I worked is pretty cool.
Anyway, it’s been a really wonderful summer. In many ways, I feel like the experience of living in an apartment some distance from my family has been good preparation for going abroad in a few weeks.
I’ve been sitting here thinking about how to write what this summer has meant to me in a way that will convey some depth of feeling without sounding instantly sentimental and falsely elevated. I honestly don’t know what to say, other than that I have been as happy as I could ever ask to be.
My family has been preparing for my upcoming departure, I think probably more so than I have. I got an email from my Dad yesterday, saying that he was in the process of buying me some non-cotton, quick-drying underwear from REI, and then five minutes later he sent another email saying that he hoped I like tartan. My mom, who seems to have developed all her ideas of England from 19th century novels, has become absolutely convinced that I will freeze to death, and cannot stop talking about long underwear and wool sweaters.
Oh, hah, it’s just occurred to me that I should probably announce that due to the insanity that is Pfizer, my family will be moving to Ann Arbor after my sister graduates high school, my mom has accepted the job of Director of Exhibitions at the KIA with the understanding that she will quit in a year when they move, after which she will get her masters degree in museum science at U of M. I always seem to focus on the little things, like sweaters, and forget the more important information.
Before he went back to St. Louis, David came with me to the cottage in South Haven that my family rents. It was a wonderful little vacation, although David did have to sleep on the couch, which I feel bad about. He actually reminded me that this was the third year he’s come up to my family’s cottage.
Right, so this whole thing has been a completely random stroll through what’s been going on in my life, with no order or forethought, so I apologize for that. Hopefully I managed to spit out a few important things in the middle of the mess.
Ann Arbor's coffeehouse scene just keeps perking along. Now Kerrytown
and Farmers Market shoppers in search of a caffeine hit don't even
have to cross the street to the ever-popular Zingerman's Next Door for
their cuppa. With the opening in the Kerrytown market building of a
new Sweetwaters Coffee and Tea - a franchise, owned by Chris Hutton,
of Lisa and Wei Bee's sleek but cozy Washington Street café -
the respite of a masterly macchiato or a gentle jasmine tea is right
at hand.
In many ways, the new Sweetwaters, which faces onto Fifth Avenue on
Kerrytown's ground floor, resembles the Washington Street cafe
many of us know and love: same drink menu, same emphasis on
well-prepared teas (no bags, not ever!), same salads, sandwiches,
quiches, pastries and cakes. The decor (a word you can't even
use to describe most java joints) will be familiar, too: charcoal
gray-and-black tables and cherry-wood- color chairs; areas with soft
seating; a rich wood and granite service counter backed by a mirror
with the "Sweetwaters'' name curling across a wave and punctuated by
the "chop'' for "Sweetwaters'' in ancient Chinese script. But there's
also a fireplace for cheer on cold gray days, and less clatter and
noise (somehow the coffee grinders don't make such a racket here) than
in the majority of the city's caffeine citadels.
Like the original Sweetwaters, this one feels serene. But it is also
the place to head if you like a little drama with your java, or a bit
of theater with your tea.
With glass walls set on a low wood base all around, a wide doorway
facing toward the Farmers Market and another doorway - fit for a
marquise, with its tall burgundy velvet curtains pulled back on either
side - facing toward Bob Sparrow's bustling meat and produce store,
the new Sweetwaters feels like it's on stage.
Who the players are depends on your perspective. From inside, it's the
shoppers selecting sausages and shell beans; from outside, it's
probably Sweetwaters' sippers and suppers. It feels very cosmopolitan.
With hours that go well beyond the markets and businesses at
Kerrytown, Sweetwaters fans, computer-carrying neighborhood residents
and Kerrytown patrons have already "discovered'' this latest addition
to Ann Arbor's coffeehouses.
If you're new to Sweetwaters, sample some of the café’s superb
iced lemon-ginger tea on a hot day (there are shakes and freezes,
too), or one of the green, black or herbal teas on a cool one. The
cappuccino and coffee has been good, too, on my visits - bravo to the
baristas and brewers - and so has the service.
My newest heartthrob coffee, though, is the Vietnamese coffee, which
blends coffee and chicory with hot sweetened condensed milk. I sort of
regard it as dessert in a cup; there are desserts in a glass, too, in
the form of beverages like the Napali Brew - ice-cream, espresso and
hazelnut syrup.
To go with, try a bagel, one of the fresh, copious salads, a vegetable
wrap or a slice of quiche.
There's soup every day, and, for a non-liquid dessert, lots of cakes
and pastries. The poppyseed bread, laced with streaks of cream cheese,
is a knock-out.
Then settle in to study a book or the passersby. It's terrific entertainment.
is a review of Sweetwaters that ran in the Ann Arbor News, and I’m offering it as evidence that the place where I worked is pretty cool.
Anyway, it’s been a really wonderful summer. In many ways, I feel like the experience of living in an apartment some distance from my family has been good preparation for going abroad in a few weeks.
I’ve been sitting here thinking about how to write what this summer has meant to me in a way that will convey some depth of feeling without sounding instantly sentimental and falsely elevated. I honestly don’t know what to say, other than that I have been as happy as I could ever ask to be.
My family has been preparing for my upcoming departure, I think probably more so than I have. I got an email from my Dad yesterday, saying that he was in the process of buying me some non-cotton, quick-drying underwear from REI, and then five minutes later he sent another email saying that he hoped I like tartan. My mom, who seems to have developed all her ideas of England from 19th century novels, has become absolutely convinced that I will freeze to death, and cannot stop talking about long underwear and wool sweaters.
Oh, hah, it’s just occurred to me that I should probably announce that due to the insanity that is Pfizer, my family will be moving to Ann Arbor after my sister graduates high school, my mom has accepted the job of Director of Exhibitions at the KIA with the understanding that she will quit in a year when they move, after which she will get her masters degree in museum science at U of M. I always seem to focus on the little things, like sweaters, and forget the more important information.
Before he went back to St. Louis, David came with me to the cottage in South Haven that my family rents. It was a wonderful little vacation, although David did have to sleep on the couch, which I feel bad about. He actually reminded me that this was the third year he’s come up to my family’s cottage.
Right, so this whole thing has been a completely random stroll through what’s been going on in my life, with no order or forethought, so I apologize for that. Hopefully I managed to spit out a few important things in the middle of the mess.