I've returned...

So.

This is kind of awkward, but I seem to have closed the La-Jolla-dwelling chapter of my life. Don't get me wrong, I'll still visit. (It's where my favorite person lives, for Chai's sake!) But I'm not going to live in La Jolla. Not long-term anyway. Sure, I'll always love it. And I've made some lovely friends, most of whom I'd be really sad to think I'd never see again...

But I explored the coffeeshops, found my local ambrosia(s), fueled my insomnia...and now it's time to move on.

For nostalgia's sake, here's a little pit stop back in my home town. (It's not a chai place, but this was never really about The Perfect Chai. Surely that's become apparent. The music, the lurkability, the heart-warming heat of the drink-in-hand, the people...No, it was bigger than the chai in my belly--big as that belly may have gotten. It was about Finding Home.):

The Coffee Garden (2904 Franklin Blvd Sacramento CA 95818)

I used to come for the ambiance, but I'd buy a coffee and maybe a salad or a bagel so they wouldn’t kick me out. Even then, I felt like the unfriendly man at the cash register was itching to kick me out for being too happy.

I think I tried the chai, but it left no lasting impression. Similarly with the food. As for the coffee, there are a few roasts, and they let you fill up for yourself so you can even make your own special blend. Or just take a sip of each before choosing the lightest roast and chugging it like water. Or sipping it like your only excuse to be there and wondering if they'll let you re-heat it when it gets past the delicious-tepid-stage and into the unpleasantly-frigid-settling-into-grains. (They probably won't, but the first refill is free and the second is under a dollar...)

Hours: 6 a.m.-11 p.m. every day but Sunday (7 a.m.-10 p.m. on Sundays)

Service: One unfriendly man and a handful of charming barista ladies. And some guys too, probably. Mostly there’s just the one EXTREMELY unfriendly man, who I think owns the place or something, because his presence is inescapable. (I mostly forgive him because once he wore a shirt bedecked with a reference to Me and You and Everyone We Know.)

This one. On a brown shirt.

Seating: ADORABLE. Fairy lights outside and quirky metal sculptures everywhere. Chess sets and barstools! Coffee Garden, you know the way to this girl’s heart! I don't even care if you're vaguely emotionally abusive!

Eatables: Yeah, the use’ (that’s pronounced “youge,” like short for “usual”): salads, sandwiches, quiches, pastries, bagels, packaged overpriced vegan cookies, slightly-overripe and overpriced fruits, etc.

People: Cute, musically-inclined (Like I said, I'd come for the ambiance, which was my favorite on the open mic nights on Thursdays...) Apparently they also host gay-man game nights and atheist nights, if those are your scenes.

Music: Open mic!

Art is better than Magic.

I'm not entirely sure why I thought this was the perfect picture to accompany my review of this coffee cart. Because it's, like, my eternal reward? A diamond in the rough? I think the latter, probably.

The Art of Espresso (UCSD campus)

$2.75 for a single-shot dirty medium soy spiced chai to go (bringing my own to-go mug got me a 25-cent discount)

Ummmm…yummm?

I’ve been to this charming coffee cart a few times since moving to La Jolla, so I can confidently say that the deliciousness I experienced on my first visit was no fluke. The spicy chai is actually spicy. (Not as perfectly, mouth-tinglingly savorable as Chico Chai…but so far I’ve found nothing that is.) And the espresso is pulled beautifully. (I think. I liked the single shot in my dirty chai, at least. It didn’t taste burned, and it had that bitter bite that blissfully induces the heart-buzzing, migraine-distracting jitter I look for in my espresso.)

I’ve only had the spiced chai, so I can’t speak to the vanilla chai. 

I'm pretty sure this is what I paid almost $3 for. You know what, though? I aintevenmad. They added soy and probably some other stuff and made me feel special and gave me a cute place to sit while I drank it. Totally worth it.

(Presumably the vanilla one is better for that large percentage of chai-sippers who prefer their beverages to be tastebud-blindingly sweet. Forget religion—sugar is the opiate of the masses.) It’s pretty thick, with a syrup that gives your mouth a faint chalky coating as you drink and leaves a crunchy-grained residue on the bottom of your mug. Which, in this case, I actually like.

There tends to be a line to the coffee cart, but it moves quickly. Soy is extra, but the bring-your-own-mug discount kind of compensates for it. The servers are nice and don’t flinch at the indecisive and/or hesitant customer with the imposingly specific order (i.e., someone like me).

There are a couple of nearby counters with plenty of options for your stirrer/straw-snagging, re-heating, snack-toasting, and general drink-doctoring pleasure. Plus there’s free wifi, AND the people-watching is pretty sweet (college kids, professors, and professional lurkers like myself…most of whom seem attractively intelligent, not that I’m biased or anything). The only real downside is that the seating area is just a bunch of plastic chairs and tables on a cement “patio” by the cart. Soooo it’s not a place that’s exactly conducive to clutching that delicious beverage as the rain pelts against your window. (Unless you take your drink into one of the nearby academic buildings, I guess.) Also, the cart closes at 4 p.m.

So it’s not the place for pouring fuel into your insomnia-tank. UNLESS YOU GET A COUPLE GALLONS TO-GO.

Hours: 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. on weekdays

Service: Excellent. Particularly given the fact that I’m a quiet, mumbly, and indecisive person who tends to end up ordering a multi-syllabic drink of prissy high-maintenance specifications. (Only complaint: Their website claims they have a rewards card for espresso drinks, but I haven’t spotted it on their cluttered little ordering countertop. I haven’t looked too closely, though, since don’t exactly want to take extra time when I reach the front of the line…but shouldn’t it be prominently displayed?)

Seating: Baby trees and cobblestones in the midst of a busy campus. A few wooden seats with side-tables attached to them, and an array of plastic tables that are at least half full (I’m an optimist) of lovely fellow-lurkers at all hours.

Eatables: Your typical bakery fare of croissants/pastries, single-serving bags of chips, bananas, candy bars, wraps, sandwiches, oatmeal cups, massive cookies, artisan truffles, and bagels (which I’ve never tried, but which look delicious, soft and not-chewy the way I like ‘em…and they’re generally sold out by 2 p.m.).

People: Lovely. Beautiful. Charming. Fill-me-to-the-brim with college nostalgia.

Music: A healthy mix of hand-clapping and wailing over xylophones/pipes, breathy electronopop, dubstep remixes, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, etc.