| rev:text
| - In which I ponder the approach to a review of a single location of a chain
Starbucks.... At once I loath it for what it has done to convince the general populace that "gourmet" coffee must taste overroasted and otherwise damaged, I must also admit that it provides a necessary public service that might otherwise be unavailable-- a predictably warm, semi-comfortable, passably clean environment in which to recharge your laptop and get free wifi.
Well, it's also an acceptable place (I'm running out of adjectives that mean "mediocre") to meet up with some friends or kill some time, get out of the rain/snow/sleet if you are not a postal worker, etc.
Wait-- what am I doing, everyone already knows what Starbucks is, I mean my iPhone even autocorrects me when I don't capitalize the "s". How is that for ubiquity? It doesn't even capitalize the "m" in mom (don't tell my mother).
So basically the above is a semi-rant against the "man" ruining something that I think is "cool" and "counter-culture". I feel like a hipster. No wonder everyone hates hipsters.
Anyways, this location is nice and spacious, wasn't super crowded when I went (around 6 pm on a weekday), some comfy looking couches that I didn't sit in because I think it's weird to sit directly beside a stranger in matching couches.
They knew what a ristretto is, but only because there is a button on the machine that says "ristretto".
And so, before I launch into my tired old rant against buying "gourmet" "espresso" from a barista whose entire training consists of locating the "start" button on a super-automatic espresso maker, I will end this review.
PS I will still come here 2 more times just so that I can become its "Duke" on my never-ending quest to dethrone the current "Queen" of Toronto.
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