SOMETHING'S AFOOT

it's not raining in portland this weekend. i haven't heard anyone complaining, and it's a welcome "welcome home." it does, however, recommend some serious riding before the wet comes back again, even if clear skies mean lower temperatures. true, looking good in pants means happily equating junk miles with serious riding, and, true, the three coffee shops that occupied most of this morning aren't all that far from each other (or from the apartment or the closest store that sells the times). but there were some serious junk miles ridden after those three cups of coffee -- and the one burrito near the place that sold me cup number three.

beside the point. and beside the point there stands a line of pretty boys waiting to be met at three different coffee shops. too bad the puzzle was so engrossing. it was not, however, so distracting as to keep me from noticing that random order on alberta now serves coffee from seattle based roaster caffé vita. i hadn't visited in at least a few months, but t couldn't have been so long ago that i saw a stumptown sign in the window...

from random order (stop number two -- stop number one, the albina press, is still stumptown proud), i rode up alberta to what i thought was the concordia coffee house, but what i realized only after seeing the caffé vita labels on the whole beans at the register and then taking a better look at the lettered windows above the doorway to be an actual CAFE vita.

it looks like war for the title of indie rock starbucks, and the battleground is none other than stumptown, u.s.a. seattle giving us a run for our money? we're all for healthy competition, but there's no chance it's going to get the price of a cup anything less than the dollar at which the local market already bottoms out. so maybe money's not really in the running, but with stumptown coffee unsteady on its throne, might our other local microroasters have a chance at a bigger piece of the pie? and the cute ones, which pie do they prefer?