COFFEE BEANS & BEINGS / COFFEE NOOKS AND BOOKS

New Year, New Winter. 

DC's Dupont Circle Starbucks on a frosty day

Coping with winter by drinking coffee and reading books all the while remembering it never snows inside a good cafe.

Due North. First stop is chilly Canada, where an online-based lifestyle magazine called Notable.CA, published a well researched, photographed and art directed feature called “15 of the Most Beautiful Coffee Shops across Canada. “ Written by Karolina Jez and posted last fall when the maple leafs were just starting to drop, the coffee houses featured run the design gamut from Vancouver to Montreal.  And, like the article promised they’re all beautiful.  The image below of Tommy’s Café (Montreal) is from Notable.CA’s post.  See all of them:

http://notable.ca/15-of-the-most-beautiful-coffee-shops-across-canada/

Montreal.

Seoul.

By the book. Next stop after our virtual red-eye to Seoul is the popular Comma Café. As the image shows it’s a well-designed coffee house that is owned by Munhakdongne, a large Korean based publisher.  More than 3,000 books add to the function and form.  It’s in Hongdae  District, a trendy arts and cultural part of the capital located a few minutes walk from Sangsu subway Station #6.  By no means is Comma Café the only coffee house owned by book publishers, in fact, there are quite a few catering to all literary styles and coffee needs.

Brrr-fect. Let’s ignore the huge tree limb that fell on the sidewalk during a recent blizzard and instead admire the cozy architecture of the triangular shaped Starbucks on Dupont Circle in Washington DC.  It’s a favorite stop of mine while dodging snow and rain and sleet that follows me to the nation’s capital every time.

Paris.

Left Cold. The last time I sipped a winter’s day coffee in Paris, I swear the tasse a café stuck to my lips.  Seldom have I been as cold as I was that day in the City of Lights.  Fortunately, the sun did make a cameo appearance along the Place Dauphine as in the photo shows of Ma Salle a Manger, where the espresso allonge was delicious.  But as the chilly wind continued to blow across the Seine, we scurried to our next stop: Sainte Chapelle.

Miami Beach.

Enough of winter.  South Beach in January makes for lighter travel.  No parkas need be packed for this destination.  Trying our first airbnb in the Miami area, we wandered off of Collins and found a A la Folie Café Francais on Espanola Way that served a welcomed monster sized caffe latte.  It went well with the nippy morning air and toasted baguette with butter and jam.  And, to our surprise Ernest Hemingway never dined there.