CoffeeBeer >> Double Shot Buzz >> 2 San Luis Obispo Cafes
The thought of San Luis Obispo takes me back to my childhood, because on our family summer holidays we often used to pass through this area while driving up the coast. It's located on Highway 101 between Pismo Beach to the south and Morro Bay to the north, which were two of my favourites place to camp up into my twenties. Originally the home of the Chumash people, who called it the Place of the Full Moon, the city of San Luis Obispo was founded in 1772 by the Spanish and named after Saint Luis, the Bishop of Toulouse. These days it’s known for being the home of California Polytechnic State University, or Cal Poly, and also the Madonna Inn, a lavish motel featuring lots of pink, that was built in 1958 and always seemed to be known for its men's restroom. San Luis Obispo was also the first city in the world to ban smoking in all public buildings, way back in 1990.
On our short road trip up the Central Californian Coast exploring breweries, my friend Mistah Rick and I spent our first night here. In the morning, in our quest to find a decent place for a coffee, we visited Kreuzberg California, a venue inspired by the Kreuzberg neighbourhood of Berlin. This Kreuzberg opened in 2010 as a breakfast and lunch cafe in the daytime and a cocktail bar in the evenings. As we entered we found ourselves in a great, cavernous place, with stairs in the back leading up to more rooms which are obviously used in the evening. Art decorates every nook and cranny: on the long wall to the left is a mural by a local graffiti group called the Canned Pineapple Company. Flanking the mural on both sides are old photos of famous literary figures such as TS Eliot, Dostoyevsky, and George Bernard Shaw. And to create a multidimensional effect, the chandeliers are table lamps which are suspended upside-down from the ceiling.
We decided to sit at a table downstairs near the front windows, with a view out onto the avenue beyond the large patio with its wooden booths and plants. (Naturally my curiosity was roused by Tom’s Toys just across the street, but we didn't take the time to explore it.) As to the coffee, my Gibraltar and Rick’s cappuccino were both excellent, as were our giant croissants. In fact, I must say these were truly excellent croissants, and I just wanted to say that again, in case I wasn’t convincing enough when I mentioned it the first time.
Before we left, we took advantage of searching for the toilets by walking all around the place, and in a separate back room we could see a man roasting coffee beans. And the smell, of course, was heavenly. If we had decided to have a full breakfast or lunch instead of just a croissant, the menu items are all named after famous writers including many of my favourites. So I probably would have had trouble choosing between a JD Salinger, a Franz Kafka, and a Haruki Murakami. Ah well, next time we visit...
After the first of our traditional two mini-breakfasts, Rick and I drove over to the coastal town of Morro Bay to have our second. Originally called Place of the Dogs by the native Chumash, the town of Morro Bay was founded in 1870 as a small port to be used for exporting dairy and farm products, and it was at one time famous for abalone fishing. The main feature of the town is Morro Rock, which rises majestically out of the ocean at the entrance to the harbour. It’s one of nine volcanic plugs referred to as the Nine Sisters, all of which can be seen when driving between San Luis Obispo and Morro Bay. When I lived in California I went camping many times around Morro Bay, mostly at Montana De Oro State Park, which is located at the bottom of the bay below Los Osos. So it was really exciting driving into the town after all these years away. I could picture my late dad searching for a shop to buy a bag of salt-water taffy.
We parked the car on a side street and, after having a brief look at the harbour and the fog-enshrouded Morro Rock, we walked up to the appropriately named Rock to have another coffee. The Rock is a very small cafe with a real California beach feel to it. We both ordered cappuccinos and, as we'd already had one minibreakfast and would have lunch later, decided to split an Everything bagel with cream cheese. We took our coffees and bagel out to the back sunny gravelled patio, where a small handful of other customers were also enjoying the morning, both in the sun and under the shade. The feeling and decor was beachcomber-style, although there were no tikis as I recall from the beach cafes of my childhood. A lone sparrow joined us, but we couldn't really engage it in conversation.
Our cappuccinos were extremely smooth but properly made, and the bagel was good. The coffee beans, which the cafe sells, are by Slake Coffee Roaster of San Luis Obispo. All of the pastries, bagels, and muffins are baked in-house, and the cafe often features live music in the garden.
I wondered about the highway sign for Route 420 that was on the fence, and neither of us remembered having taken this route before. When I researched it later, I learned that although there are several Route 420s around the US, there has never been a Route 420 in California. But I also learned that “Highway 420” is a slang term for marijuana. So I suppose, like anything, it’s all about interpretation...
Speaking of interpretation brings to mind an email conversation from a year ago about just what is possible with Lego:
I’m just killing time at work because there’s absolutely nothing to do, so I’m reading through some of my science emails. And I was impressed to learn about some of the Lego sets that adults can buy. In a citywide Lego display a few years ago I saw versions of many space vehicles and rockets, but I’d never seen an athletic shoe, a typewriter, a VW van, or a grand piano made of Lego. It’s all pretty cool. Obviously I’d really like to have the Lego Space Shuttle kit. Some of these are unbelievable. I'm tempted to consider a Roman Coliseum kit to spend my twilight years and help ward off dementia, but are they saying I'll need the signoff of a structural engineer to build that?Related Links