This occurred during a time that ingredient costs were skyrocketing AND they were renewing their commitment to local producers, organic meats, and free-range anything-they-could-afford.

So, folks rebelled.  ”Eight bucks for coffee and a slice of PIE?!!!”  ”$10 for a vegetarian noodle bowl???  You gotta be f’ing with me.”  No longer the divey hipster hangout, Flying Star won new enemies where it used to have fans.  And I stuck up for them, knowing how hard it is to run a sustainable (read: profitable) restaurant.  And they are/were still packed – so obviously it hasn’t killed their entire patron base.

I also compared them to the Grove Cafe & Market, posing the pragmatic situation thusly:  If the Flying Star were to start BRAND NEW right now with its menu and prices as they currently exist, they would be just like the Grove.  And that leads me to my point – I had my moment at the Grove the other day, when I ordered a cappucino and a cookie.  A rather smallish cookie.  I paid SIX BUCKS, and had an immediate negative reaction, asking the cashier just how much that cookie was, anyway ($1.99).  It was the cappucino at $3.50, which came delivered as a latte, that sent the total up to the sky.

So…. now what?  The Grove’s coffee is still far better than Flying Star’s, but Cafe Giuseppe rules all plus they know that a single cappucino should be about 5 ounces total, not 12.  Oh, and they have gelato that is better than anything outside of Silver City in the whole state.

Santa Fe is known for a lot of touristy things, but one of them is not catering to the desires of those who like to eat, drink coffee, or shop past 8pm on weeknights.

If you happened to be awake in Santa Fe on a Saturday or Sunday morning and wanted portable coffee, where did you go?  O’Hori’s has some of the best beans in town.  Closed weekends.  Santa Fe Baking Company?  Sequestered away next to the Trader Joe’s (still, probably your existing best option and its close to St Francis if you’re driving through town).  Holy Spirit Espresso?  Closed weekends.  Dunkin Donuts?  Hey, at least its open!

When Flying Star opened in 2009, it expanded the drinkable coffee options in Santa Fe to a significant margin, especially in the evenings.  A few other local places open early and serve coffee, true.  But stay open late?  Not typically.

Now, a pissed off employee set the place on fire.  Why?  Who knows, but the reaction has been to blame Flying Star’s food and their “intrusion” into the local dining scene. 

I say WTF, and will continue saying it.  Flying Star is not the best restaurant around by a stretch, and I will keep saying that, as well.  But they are reliable, diverse, amicable to picky diners, cook organic meats and eggs, have great pastries, serve decent coffee, and are open many many hours every single day.  And, they are LOCALLY owned. 

What more do you slow food people want?

Ecco Espresso and Gelato

Now, I’m not saying that I’ve found the holy grail of espresso here in town, or that there even is one.  I give you as example that our bar of expectation is not yet high enough, a photo of a working “joe” having his morning beverage with rounded fingers barely able to grip the tiny cup and a portly wallet ready to throw a fiver on the counter:

…and then, let’s zoom out to take in the whole scene so that you can feel the seriousness that is espresso at 7:50am on a weekday in Manhattan:

Now, this is a place where it is all about the delivery of a premium product with lightning-fast service, perfection of skills, and style to boot.

Each and every one of the employees looked like they had been doing this for years, each wore a button down light blue shirt with a tie tucked in halfway so as to convey both formality and function as they darted up and down the 40′ space delivering hot brown beverages to customers who sipped and gulped them down standing up before heading to their train.

No to-go orders here, no chairs, no wifi, no music.  Just pure efficiency and a rigorous adherance to what they know to be holy and good:  ground fermented roasted berries assaulted with pressurized steam served in heated porcelain cups.

Capisce?

1.  Wake up a little earlier than you’d like, and see the morning light creeping over the world as you dress and head out the door.

2.  Meet up with friends or not, do a workout or not, and greet the lovely Duke City as it starts heating up and shimmering in the sunlight.

3.  Head to a local coffee shop with wifi, get some reading done over a cuppa joe, and just watch the rest of the patrons filter in and out, as they go through their own morning routines.

Next week, repeat.  That’s it.  Find comfort in your routine, look forward to it after a week at the office, as a pause between the hectic pace of weekdays and the purely lazy stay-at-home time of Sunday.

He is an east-coaster and rather slender, once you identify the source of fresh cups of jitter:

As it turns out, I was reading the guy’s news feeds months ago and was all excited the someone – anyone – was handling Ethiopian Harar in these parts.  Once Thomas set up shop inside Wooby’s Cafe, I had to go pay a visit, exchange Twitter pleasantries, and of course talk about coffee.

He also had me sample some Harar brewed with an AeroPress, a new-fangled contraption that combines the best of the french press with the strength of a moka pot.  Sheer wonderment ensued as I snarfed down a mega-caffeinated black cuppa right there on the spot, scalding my tongue in the process.  Perfect!

Fat Boy (and Wooby’s) is open from 7:30-3pm daily, but call ahead especially in the morning, just in case they’re running a little late.   Wifi is provided on the premises, and if they’re especially busy or bored, the 3pm closing hour could be extended at whim.

I could just have a flower, enjoy it, sip it and be done, of course, though the macchiatto was delicious.  I had to follow it up (short shelf life, ya know…) with some quickly softening and strong like it should be rum raisin gelato.  Sampling about 5 flavors like zabaglione, plum sake, ginger lime from the awesome list of choices, I finally decided on one of my old favorites, though Haagen Dazs does do a really fabulous and strong example of it.  Gelato is just much cleaner in flavor, not heavy or tongue-coating like the cream in ice cream.  I wonder if there’s a rum raisin “light” in the HD line… hmm.

Anyway, I definitely had to drink the espresso first.  Because I have my priorities, of course.  Coffee over gelato?  Actually, yes.  When its done really well, it can blow your mind.  And even if its just good, it is still comforting in a way that cold sweet things just can’t be.

An Albuquerquean by birthright, Francisco is currently a resident of the City Different, and so far I’m not holding it against him.

How can I, when he is taking up the torch to demonstrate to his city-dwellers that the Duke City has food worth eating and is not a cesspool of strip malls and freeways? Of course I can’t. He led a group this weekend to experience the comfort and panache of Gold Street Caffe, on the one day of the week they offer Southwestern Eggs Bennie, piquant with jalapenos and tasting of fine butter.

We talked about the great hole in the wall places around Albuquerque,  from tacos to burgers and everything in between, plotting to draw all Santa Feans down here for gustatory revelry.

He had not, however, been acquainted with Sophia’s Place, and that is what I present here, in photos as well as previous reviews by both myself and other food writers. Enjoy, my friend!

Gil Garduno’s write up

Duke City Fix column from 2006

ABQ Journal review (if the link is broken, I hope to have another copy of it available ASAP!)

Alibi (Jennifer Wohletz)

I love coffee. I adore a good pull of espresso. And yet, when you or I search Google for “best barista” albuquerque, you will get a post that I wrote on my older blog website about DENVER. Denver, fer gawd’s sake. I need to hang my head and beg forgiveness with that nonsense….

Instead of pumping up the abilities (good as they may be) of baristas in other cities, I should be using my knowledge and whatever influence I can muster up to improve the situation here in my favorite city, my adopted hometown of Albuquerque.

This morning I changed my Saturday routine slightly and avoided my usual bout of loitering and absorbing the scene at Flying Star over magazines and just so-so coffee, to spend some time at a much homier shop called Cup O’ Joe. I hadn’t been by in an embarassingly long time, but promptly said hello to George and got on with my espresso swilling, lounging decompression.

George pulls a really good shot – not perfect, but certainly worthy of a visit or two or three. And – get this – he charges a BUCK for a shot. How can you not come by and check this place out now?

Cup O’ Joe is on Eubank, almost at Montgomery, next to a Farmer’s Market store.