Heywood Jablome, why do you ask?
What’s your Starbuck’s name? I don’t have one because I don’t get coffee at Starbucks because, well, only a crazy person pays $3 for a cup of coffee. And their coffee isn’t that good. Or as cafkia says:
Oddly enough, I like coffee so I have never been in a starbucks.
But it’s a funny read.
December 5th, 2006 at 10:41 am
Three bucks for a cup of coffee is like nine bucks for a martini. Homey don’t play that.
December 5th, 2006 at 1:01 pm
Nine bucks for a martini isn’t much in NY. About five years ago, I regularly drank dry, ice-cold Sapphires with olives on the side. They were $10 then at a bar that specialized in always getting your martini perfect. Yeah, it was a little pricey, but you know what? They were committed to getting it right. If any little bit of it was wrong, I could send it back and it would get corrected. That’s committment.
I don’t do coffee (or caffeine) that often, and I’ve been opposed to the very idea of Starbucks since they first came to NY. I didn’t drink coffee for a long time, but then I started this new job. We have a decent espresso machine and a staff obsessed with grind sizes and exotic beans mined by llamas. The espresso is damn good, and the lattes are deep bowls of milky heaven. So now I don’t do coffee unless it promises to be excellent. Needless to say, I don’t do starbucks.
December 5th, 2006 at 2:37 pm
People exaggerate a bit. A large (venti) Starbucks coffee is under two bucks. That’s more than the gas station charges, but not that much more.
December 5th, 2006 at 2:49 pm
The star bucks thing is when people start ordering fru fru drinks.
like gingerbread lattes Mmmm MMmm Mmmm
But Les is right, the price for just a cup of coffee isn’t THAT out of whack.
Of course, the coffee is crap.
and, the reason it isn’t out of whack is cause Starbucks raised the bar for coffee prices. ALmost overnight, my local dinner went from 60 cents up to $1.99 for a cup of coffee cause 1) it was competitve with Starbucks and 2) People were willing to pay it.
December 5th, 2006 at 2:49 pm
I still don’t know about the name thing though.
I’ve been to real crazy crowded starbucks and have never had to leave my name.
December 5th, 2006 at 2:59 pm
You only need to leave a name if you’re getting some kind of dessert drink that requires assembly.
December 5th, 2006 at 3:21 pm
I have for some time had my own personal boycott against beverage and dinner ripoff. I like a good martini, but I won’t pay a 800% markup so I make them at home. I like good coffee but even two bucks is too much to pay for a good cup of coffee away from home.
Six bucks for a beer? I’ll drink at home. Maybe a Sam Adams maybe a Abita Turbo Dog. As long as there as suckers out there that will pay the freight my boycott will stand.
Another thing I am boycotting is the high end steak houses. $35.00 for a New York strip? I can get a great NY Strip for $11.00 and it will feed two people. I can cook it as good if not better than the steakhouse.
At some point on the price elasticity food quality and service curve the restaurant business has gone to hell. Poor food and drink at high prices with indifferent customer service created my boycott.
Enough of the rant phase, is there a place around here that has a good value and is worth a trip to?
A few come to mind:
Copper Cellar
Cappuccino’s
Calhoun’s
Connors
Chop House
Lemon Grass
Puleo’s
I am hard pressed to think of a chain restaurant that deserves any business. Texas Roadhouse or Famous Dave’s had good fare.
By the way, the word from Rich Hailey is that one of the downtown “elevated” special membership restaurants really sucks. It might be on top of a bank building. Maybe. He didn’t say. But that got me thinking about how far from the heyday the local restaurant business has fallen.
December 5th, 2006 at 6:20 pm
I always liked the Regis.
And Calhoun’s BBQ (of course, thats a chain these days too).
As far as the high end steak houses – I agree – its just my job demands I take people there. $35 bucks sounds cheap for DC. Try $45-50 and up.
Generally though, I think your going to see a lot of restaurants struggling over the next couple of years as the coming ethanol boom is going to force the cost of most food to skyrocket. Protein (chicken, beef, pork) is probably going to go up at least 30%. Everything else which has corn sweetners (coke, etc) or corn derived preservatives will also see a significant bump in price with all the nation’s corn locked up in ethanol production.
Theres gonna be significant fallout in the restaurant business – my guess is its at the mid level, those still concerned with quality but striving to make it affordable.
Fast food is fast food. The upper end stuff is mostly paid for on expense accounts and will continue to be.
December 5th, 2006 at 8:15 pm
I order crazy dessert drinks and still have never had to leave a name. Maybe the DC Starbuck’s are just different? They just take your drink order here, write it on the cup and pass it down the line, announcing only the drink order when it’s done.
December 6th, 2006 at 12:28 am
I don’t believe in drinking calories, so needless to say Starbucks is right out.
Dunk’s large with milk and Splenda, though, RAWKS…
December 6th, 2006 at 10:24 am
If you want really good coffee then roast your own. It’s as easy as popping popcorn. Go to http://www.sweetmarias.com for info, equipment, and some of the best (green) coffee beans on the planet.
The good thing is that you get coffee that tastes like it smells. The bad thing is that it gets very hard to find something drinkable away from home.
December 6th, 2006 at 6:14 pm
good link KCSteve.
We actually have a little coffee shop here in McLean, VA that roasts its own beans every day.
They have an assortment of perhaps 20 different coffees – all stored in big barrels – and all roasted on a rotating schedule in the store.
There’s actually another coffee shop just a few miles away in Great Falls, VA that does the same thing (but the owner is an asshole).
The guy in McLean is a decent fellow, even though he is a frog.
December 6th, 2006 at 6:15 pm
Jay G.
Dunkin Donuts is wicked awsome.