Still on the move in northern Michigan
This reviewer is still in Michigan so if you’re tired of hearing about coffee shops outside of the Boulder area, sorry, but at least for me it’s interesting to observe the contrasts across the country. It’s especially interesting to see what locals get in small cities in the rural U.S. (I’m thinking population 1,000 – 10,000 and nowhere near a metro area). These are towns far too small to have a Starbucks, and maybe even too small to have a decent espresso operation, but as I said in a previous post, indie espresso joints are on the rise throughout the heartland.
One such city is Munising in the Upper Peninsula, population a bit under 3,000 but a spry little tourist town that’s home to Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. Visiting a couple of weeks ago, we badly needed decent coffee and ended up finding the only real coffee shop in town: the Falling Rock Cafe & Bookstore. Now this was a real locals joint. I don’t know how a town of fewer than 3,000 people has enough dedicated cafe regulars to have 300 earmarked mugs on the walls, each with a different customer’s name, but they do. Maybe our beloved Walnut Brewery has more personal beer steins on its walls than Falling Rock has coffee mugs, but it can’t be by much. It was nice to see a local coffee shop with such a dedicated following.
Unfortunately, at least in terms of the actual coffee, the good citizens of Munising aren’t given much love in return. The coffee was disgusting. I went back twice in a day, both times didn’t drink my drink. This isn’t snobbery, this is plain, objective fact, confirmed by the multiple adults in our group (only one or two of which are coffee snobs) who tried the coffee. The first visit we got coffees for 6 people and all were more or less undrinkable. The second time, different shift, only two coffees and both were bad. The baristas were friendly but completely untrained. So maybe it was the baristas, or maybe it was the roast: Great Lakes Coffee. My guess is that it was both. Even with a woeful barista the quality of the coffee will still peek through. Not in this case. I’m still wondering where the good roasters are outside of Chicago.
The espresso experience was unfortunate, because otherwise Falling Rock is exactly the kind of shop I’d like to have in Boulder. Physically it is half coffee bar and cafe and half bookstore, both with a good, comfortable feel. Plenty of tables and chairs in both spaces and a cozy couch in the bookstore. The cafe portion has a good menu of food options (we didn’t try anything though) with what is absolutely bedrock standard in midwest cafes: ice cream. Saxy’s can have its gleaming euro stainless steel gelato cooler, but Falling Rock has the standard salt o’ the earth ice cream cooler. As far as a cafe and bookstore combo, don’t we have that in the Boulder Bookstore? No, not really. There we have a huge bookstore attached by a single opening to a very uncomfortable coffee shop (probably Boulder’s most uncomfortable coffee shop). In Falling Rock the scene is comfortable and mellow, with easy, natural movement between the cafe and bookstore. At Falling Rock they are built to be together; at Boulder Bookstore the cafe seems like a bastard stepchild appendage.
Woolly Bugger: Harbor Springs, Michigan
Any decent fly fisherman knows that a woolly bugger is a wet fly (that feels like it has the mass of a lead weight compared to a typical dry fly). It’s also the name of a little coffee shop in Harbor Springs, Michigan (and another location in Charlevoix, purportedly). The shop is fly fishing themed, with fishing quotes on the walls and other visual aides to bolster the case. It comes off a bit campy (ok, really campy), but otherwise the shop is cozy and workable, though pretty cramped.
Woolly Bugger roasts its own coffee (offsite, elsewhere in Harbor Springs) and the cappuccino I had was smooth and tasty and very mild. Mild well beyond Amante’s roasts, if that’s any indication. I’ll be near for a while so will go back for more visits and see if the subsequent shots are as mild. As a change, I rather liked it. I didn’t realize how inured I had become of the rocket booster roasts of Conscious, Kaladi, Unseen, etc. I could get used to a milder espresso, or at least get used to having the choice on any given day. At any rate, the coffee was well worth going back for.
The work space? That might be a different matter. It’ll do in a pinch (free wireless, of course), but for longer term working needs — i.e., reliably comfortable working space a day or two a week — Woolly Bugger isn’t going to be the choice because there is no elbow room. Then again, there isn’t any other choice in Harbor Springs, so good luck if the world brings you here for a month or two. Absolutely beautiful place of the country to visit and even stay, not the easiest place to be a traveling laptop zombie.
Travels through the Northlands
It’s been a few years since I was able to get the time and reason to make a long road trip but the opportunity presented itself recently and now here I am, 1,500 miles richer. My rough route was Boulder to a little town about an hour outside of Rapid City, SD. From there due east through SD and into Pipestone, MN before I headed northeastward. I stayed on rural highways to Duluth, then stayed on Highway 2 through Ashland, WI and on into the UP (that’s “Upper Peninsula of Michigan” to those of you not from Michigan or the northwoods). I stayed on Hwy 2 through the UP to the Mackinac Bridge, then into northern Michigan where I now rest.
First, two general observations. I’ve made this trip a few times, always along slightly different routes, but more or less the same trip, the last time about five years ago. Since then two things have happened: 1) wireless internet has hit the rest of the country; 2) indie coffee shops have hit their stride. I mean no patronizing in either case, just the facts.
A few years ago there was no such thing as “free wi-fi” in the rural middle of the U.S. Now, it’s everywhere. It’s on marquee boards of cheap motels, LED signs of gas stations alongside the current price of gas, and sandwich boards outside of run-down sandwich shops in towns of 428 souls. It’s shocking to see the variety of establishments you now see the sign proclaiming “free wireless,” “wireless internet!!” or “free wi-fi.” Again, this is not along the interstates but inside the little towns you must pass through as you traverse Highway 23 through Minnesota or 123 through the UP.
Panera Bread – Fenton, MI
Mountain Town Coffee
When in Chicago….
We’re sure that there are awesome indi coffee shops here in the Windy City, but we’re not at one of them right now. We’re parked at Caribou (corner of N Ashland Ave and W School St), which is on the SBC/Peaberry/Pete’s tier-II level of mega coffee chains. Free wi-fi got us in the door. Moving on shortly to find some babes on Southport Ave…. (and when I say babes, I mean the toddler types. This neighborhood outdoes Boulder in toddlers per capita by at least 2:1). Caribou was absurdly loud, with the chiller motors like chainsaws. Go there in a pinch, don’t go as a destination.
Ok, now we’re sitting in the Southport Grocery and Cafe (corner of N Southport and W Addison, not too far from Wrigley Field). Now this place is a find! No wireless in here but there are enough open ports that we’re live. Oh, the Matrix. We also tried Julius Meinl across the street but you have to {gasp!!} pay for that wireless so we walked.
