CoffeeBeer >> Double Shot Buzz >> 2 Central Coast Cafes
In May of this year, on my road trip up the Central California Coast with my Bay Area friend Mistah Rick, we spent one night in downtown Monterey, located north of the Big Sur Coast and at the bottom of Montery Bay. As we planned to continue further up the coast, and we weren’t inspired by what was available near our hotel, we decided to drive up to Pacific Grove first for a coffee and a light breakfast snack. A favourite location for both John Steinbeck and Robert Louis Stevenson, this city features many Victorian mansions and has been used as a popular filming location since the 1950s.
We both fancied a bagel with our coffee, so we decided on Bagel Kitchen, which turned out to be quite a casual takeaway place as opposed to a proper sit-down. But as there was some limited seating, we decided at this point that it would do. We both ordered cappuccinos which were served in takeaway cups, as that’s all they offer. Bypassing the featured bagel of the day, which was Bacon Cheddar, we both went for all-seed bagels with herb schmer, and also two glasses of orange juice. We took a seat in the side alcove, at the big wooden table that felt a bit like a conference table. We had a view of parked cars, the adjacent Valero gas station, and an Ace Hardware, which made me think of my Unkletom who, for years, stopped into every Ace Hardware he happened to pass in order to buy me some Preiser figures. (I used to incorporate them into my 3D art sculptures.)
Sadly our drinks were served to us absolutely scalding. But once my cappuccino had finally cooled enough to drink, it was quite good, strong and robust. Nevertheless my “double cappuccino” nearly filled the 12-ounce cup, so I found myself becoming way too bloated from milk to finish my coffee. There’s just something not right about that.
The bagel was pretty good, though. Apparently they bake their bagels fresh, after being boiled in a kettle as they should be, at 3am every morning. And they use local produce as well as coffee from the nearby ACME roasters.
The Bagel Kitchen also serves lots of sandwiches, including breakfast varieties and burritos, toast and wraps, buttermilk pancakes, burgers, and obviously bagels to go. The bagels seem decent, but I was sort of wishing they had at least one wholegrain option. Oh well, you can’t have everything.
The advantage to having stopped in Pacific Grove was that when we left the city, we somehow “accidentally” found ourselves taking the gorgeous 17-Mile Drive that winds around the coast through Pebble Beach. As neither of us California-born people had actually done this before, and we weren’t exactly pressed for time, it was well worth the diversion.
Later on that day we reached Santa Cruz, where we spent the night at a hotel on the beach. Situated on the north edge of Monterey Bay, the city of Santa Cruz, which started life in 1791 as a Spanish mission, features the Santa Cruz Wharf, which is the longest wooden pier in the country. As we discovered, this pier is well worth checking out, if only to be serenated by the constant loud barking of the sea lions around the pilings. In fact, we could hear them all night long from our hotel. Although we didn’t stay in town long enough to see any surfers in action, I did learn that Santa Cruz was where surfing was introduced to the US back in 1885 by three Hawaiian princes.
The next morning, before leaving town to head further north, we took a nine-minute walk from our hotel to the Firefly Coffee House. Although all the restaurants, pubs, and businesses in California had finally opened up post-lockdown, this tiny place was still only serving customers outdoors. So once again we could expect to get our coffees in paper cups.
Our “cappuccinos” were basically 8-ounce cups full to the brim with hot milk. Our tomato cheddar “bagels” had no holes and were more of a chewy bread texture than a bagel should be, but they were good. And the roasted jalapeno cream cheese was really good -- not very spicy, but tasty. We sat at a table over by the street, as it seemed to be the only one that was at least partially in the shade.
From our vantage point away from the building we could more easily take in the strange location. Firefly is attached to The Mill and surrounded by sort of a light-industrial area. It’s very close to Motion Pacific Dance, Lotts Auto Stereo, and directly across the street from the Kaiser Permanente Arena, home of the Santa Cruz Warriors and the “Axe Throwers”. We contemplated what sport might be played by warriors throwing axes. Could the arena be the venue for Santa Cruz’s beach volleyball team?
Ah, I see. The Santa Cruz Warriors play basketball. But I still have no idea who the Axe Throwers are, especially as there don’t seem to be any of the trendy axe-throwing centers in Santa Cruz or vicinity yet. Perhaps they’re real live Vikings visiting from Norway...
Speaking of Vikings, who undoubtedly ate lots of real animals, reminds me of a recent email conversation with Mistah Rick about cultivating meat:
Recently I was reading an article on genetically cultivated meats and dairy products. As a pescaterian who doesn’t eat meat only because I don’t like it or the way it makes my stomach feel, I can’t help wondering how I would feel if faced with a menu of meat burgers produced from cultivating cow cells in the laboratory. I’m pretty sure that I still probably wouldn’t eat it, as I prefer my vegetarian or vegan burger to be its own unique and hopefully yummy entity as opposed to something that tastes, feels, and bleeds so much like a beef burger that even a regular beef-burger eater couldn’t tell the difference.Related Links