Prior to 2009, it was pretty damn hard.   

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?

As another in the series of “Burque Baristas“, I need to draw attention to one particular favorite, a spot that has pulled a decent shot of espresso for me, even throwing one out when it was not exactly to spec:

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?

How to have a Saturday routine in 3 easy steps:

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.

Visited the brand-spankin’-new coffee roaster in Cedar Crest today called Fat Boy.

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.

A flower for my mom’s birthday, crafted with precision out of hot dairy foam by the excellent barista at Ecco Espresso & Gelato in lovely Nob Hill neighborhood in Albuquerque.

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.