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| - Okay, you pay for the experience, Cartel is by no means cheap, but it is good. I've watched the company grow since the beginning and at least in the Tempe location, it has stayed both an iconic experience of Tempe life near ASU, and a provider of both exceptional coffee and tea drinks and baked goods. I generally go in for a large, hot, Cafe Americano with room for cream ($3.75 - told you, not cheap) and today I had something new, a toasted English muffin with jam (the person taking the order referred to as a jammy dodger, maybe a UK expression) and it takes a few minutes to toast but it comes out blazing hot with a little bag with a napkin, plastic knife and a little container of butter and one of jam, at least this time it was apricot and it was delicious, I have a feeling it is locally made (assumption on my part). The texture of the English Muffin was wonderful, weighty texture and crusty and I'm assuming it is also locally made. From my final bill it is $3 and of course, I tipped a dollar on the overall cost so $7.75 for the cost of the cafe americano and the baked good.
Oh, and of course, wonderful new locally made art up on the walls again today and some wonderful new music on the sound system.....I don't give a lot of five stars out but honestly, this is coffee counterculture (little play on words, counterculture being variance on the norm and coffee places having a counter on....okay, not that funny but at least I tried). They do have wi-fi and if you buy something you get the password for the day. I generally go when they first open but they are open, I believe, from 7 am till 11 pm at night.
I know they are looking to open some sort of beer and wine bar expansion in the tanning salon location by them that went out of business but Tempe business regulations take some time to go through, and I hear that may involve them brewing their own beer as well, and wouldn't that be interesting?
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