Visable Alex mojo!

What, are your sunsets under the ocean?

Got 'em out here in CA as well. But as other have stated: bleh

You mean I'm not the only fan of old bank buildings? Yay! I love the murals they all seem to have. I think those buildings are worth preserving, for the art if not the history.

Oh, um... coffee, yeah...

I like Starbucks and Peets.

Gee...if Fresno is Swanky, what does that make Bakersfield?


nm. I don't want to know.

There's a great doughnut place in Oxnard we used to go to whenever we were out there called Heavenly Cakes N' Mor. Full-on bakery, but they do an enormous doughnut business on a Saturday or Sunday morning, with a line sometimes out the door.

Costa Mesa has a decent place too, called Love Those Doughnuts or something like that. And best of all, it's open 24/7, not just "doughnut hours". Which makes sense to me, because when I want a doughnut it's usually after 5pm.

But the long and the short of it is, independent doughnutteries are better than chains. Full bakeries that do a brisk business in doughnuts are best of all.

Unlike coffee houses... I find the worst, least reliable coffee comes from the independents, so I actually desire the chains.

Have you* ever had a regular (read: not Krispy Kreme) fresh and warm out of the oven? When I do the MS Walk (up at 3:30 in the morning), it is a special treat!





* And by "you," I mean the general you**, not specifically Morrrigoon





"" And by "general you," I mean the LoT population in general; not General You

Query: which is Swankier? A suburban Starbucks with a daily coffee klatch of moms with strollers and predictable smooth jazz or an independent coffee shop with a daily coffee klatch of wasted yutes, bad local art on the walls and--here it comes--bad coffee?

Winchells is still around. Store Locater here

My dad used to work for Denny's corporate office. Denny's owned Winchells. The result? Donut holes and donuts galore. Or as often as my mom would let him bring them home. So Saturday morning treats. Yum!

GD pointed that out above. In all my travels over the last couple decades I don't think I've ever actually seen one and all the ones I knew as a kid closed in the late '80s.

I just assumed they went away leaving no evidence but distinctive triangular signage for florists and pet stores.

I love coffee, and my favorite is 'coffee-flavored coffee,' (wink and a nod to BTD). In general, as long as it's not burnt (which is the case so many places), most coffee is just fine... usually just weak IMO. So, McD's coffee when it's in the morning is perfectly fine, as is DD. My favorite will always be Peets, mainly because of the lack of burn-flavor, but Starbucks' straight-up coffee is plenty fine, and better than most. Bleh..

But I am glad that Starbucks is going through re-training. I've discovered that very few 'baristas'... Starbucks and otherwise... have been properly trained. When I was at Peet's, we'd get a lot of former Starbucks baristas and we'd have to break them of a lot of bad habits that develop when everything is automated. Retraining them will do wonders for the quality of the drinks they churn out... which are fine, though they could be better.

Kudos for Starbucks, and kudos for those looking to make a marketing venture out of such an opportunity.

And I imagine my old Pee's is about to be slammed in a few hours... here's to hoping they brought in some back up.