coffee week day 4 - feeling nostalgic already!

What used to be Kozy Kitchen, a family-run bakery, is now Granat’s, which still has the bakery biz but also a 600-sq-ft café w/ little granite tables where you can get espresso drinks made w/ Segafredo Zanetti coffee beans. Owner David Granat made some dough in mergers & acquisitions but decided to focus on another kind of dough (har). He still does the cakes Kozy Kitchen was known for, but also bakes challah on Fridays, milktarts, a specialty of South Africa (that’s where he’s from), and even the foccaccia w/ which the café’s sandwiches are made.

4433 Mckinney Ave. 214-354-9000

coffee week, day 3

You only need look at the name - Waffle Iron Café & Coffee House - to know that coffee runs second to waffles at this little neighborhood spot. But they do have espresso drinks even if the barista skills are a work in progress. And waffles aren’t exactly a bad thing, are they. It’s breakfast and lunch, with “fast casual” service (order at the counter and they bring it to you) and free wireless access, which is very cool.

5181 Keller Springs Rd. (at the tollway) 972-250-1166

coffee week AND a special edition posting!

This is basically verbatim off the press release but that’s ok cuz 1. that’s how daily newspapers “find news” (snicker) and 2. “recrafting” this info would delay a VIA (very important announcement!): On Wednesday june 29, Starbucks Coffee Co. will give away 1 million complimentary (free!) cups of Starbucks® Ice Cream (the press release also says “in the first-ever Starbucks Ice Cream Social”, but how queer is that). The ice cream will be distributed in the AFTERNOON, it says, to “more than 6,000 Starbucks locations”. 10,000 boxes of Starbucks® Ice Cream cups will be shipped from 3 warehouses in L.A., Atlanta, and Lancaster-PA, tonight, via FedEx “just in time for customers to celebrate … the early arrival of national ice cream month.” (july’s ice cream month? who knew) other flavors besides java chip: mud pie, coffee almond fudge, no sugar added coffee fudge brownie, low fat latte, classic coffee, and caramel cappuccino swirl.

coffee week, day 2

Gachet is listed already on a restaurant site, so no, this ain’t Breaking News. (hey it seemed to be in soft opening mode so … no rush to report. But this is coffee week.) There’s a couplo inherently cool things about this lower greenville coffeespot: 1. it’s run by 4 sisters whose names all begin with H: heatherhappyheidihilary. 2. in a twist on conventional wisdom, it stays open til midnite weekdays but closes earlier (at 10) on wkends. Now usually a place gets touts for staying open late, but what coffee drinker would want to be on lower greenville on a wkend nite? Exactly. Gachet also has 3. liqueurs for fancy coffee drinks but no beer 4. pastry from empire baking 5. Monday movie nights.

1804 greenville ave. 214-887-8095

coffee week, day 1

(note: this item is only loosely “coffee-related”) prologue: Krispy Kreme’s donuts blow. Now they have a crappy frozen drink too. (Actually, they’ve had it since July ‘04, but in limited release.) No surprise, it’s already tanking, which you can tell cuz they’re trying to drum up biz w/ 2-for-1 coupons. (if only the DMN would come to the rescue w/ a big story like they did when krispy kreme first came to town: “donut shop opens!”) Frozen blends (catchy!) consist of powder blended w/ ice — another gross-tasting sbux clone, except this doesn’t even have coffee mixed in. There’s choc, coffee, raspberry, and something called original kreme, described as a “drinkable version of the company’s signature donut” but which is really pretty much vanilla.

Who knew Yoo-Hoo was a valuable brand name? (”who-knew yoo-hoo”, pretty good huh.) These spin-offs seem both brilliant and “duh”, like it’s about time. 1. Yoo-Hoo fudge pops. Doesn’t the drink itself seem like a melted fudgsicle anyway? 2. Dyna-Mocha Yoo-Hoo. Ya got all these other companies making coffee+choc bevs, why not Yoo-Hoo add coffee to its CHOC drink and make one, too? Supposedly Yoo-Hoo once dominated the “blended-coffee-drink category” but it took Sbux’ bottled frapps to make it seem good. Yoo Hoo has been around since 1920; it does smart mktg by maximizing its weirdness and targeting the extreme-sports crowd; it used to give away freebies at Warped, the skate-punk tour (which stops in Dallas today, howzat for convergence).

*plz forgive gratuitously stupid hed

i got bounced back and forth all day between campbell and pepperidge farm but finally, here it is, and boy was it worth the wait

Disclaimer: Have not had these. Have not seen them in local stores yet. This is the work of the Indian scout, who spotted them in an undisclosed pacific NW location. but the pepp farm lady insists that Pepperidge Farm Whims are in dallas too. quoting from a press release is in bad form, but who could improve on this: “a scrumptious fusion between cookie sweetness and crunchy texture, providing a delightfully delicious munchable snack.” you saw that right: a scrumptious fusion. there’s more: these Whims come in “two different product forms“: Crispy Waves vs. Crunchy Clusters. the Waves are of interest (to NYCE, that is) cuz their pringle-y shape echoes the “product form” of those god-awful Swoops, dead-in-the-water from the day they were introduced (and recently spotted on super SUPER markdown at SuperT). Oh dang, no room left to describe Whims’ six “delicious flavor combinations” but they all got one kind o choc or another

The SW corner of park & 75 is a hit-or-miss thing. Fishmonger’s has done OK for years and ugh there’s a Chili’s. But it’s seen lotsa M&Ps (mom & pops, helloooo) come and go, mostly go. Home Sweet Home Cookin’, which opened a couplo mths ago in a space formerly occupied by Amici Pizza (see what I’m sayin), does convey a clear message w/ its name: It’s a home-cooking place. But owner LaDonna is less forthcoming (even a wee bit paranoid) about divulging her last name; fascinating philosophy for a restaurateur, eh. Her menu includes pot roast, Hawaiian chicken, pork chops, a ¾-pound burger, homemade chicken strips, cakes, and pies.

1915 N. Central Expy #500, plano. 972-633-0710

Can you tell that someone cruised thru deep ellum recently?* In the kinda-remote spot that usedta be Dodie’s Gulf Coast is Kahuna’s Grill, a burger joint w/ a loose Hawaiian-ish theme (pineapple on menu, mural w/ a Hawaiian girl, flames, and big waves over the bar. Aloha!) The place opened last September, but it’s under new management; restaurant newby Juliette Salazar took over last month. The bestseller is the Kahuna burger, w/ cheese, poblano pepper, and pineapple pico de gallo. Sounds yum. Once she gets her liquor license, she’ll stay open late on wkends, like til 4 a.m., to catch hungry clubgoers.

2931 Commerce St, 214-571-9930

* also noted ebay shop on main st. called auction mills. and one on mckinney called orbit

The space at commerce and crowdus, in the heart of deep ellum, is a beautiful old brick bldg that deserves a good tenant but can’t find the right one. In the ‘90s it was a tapas bar (who remembers the name). Then it was Texadelphia, then Tex’s Taphouse. Hmm wonder what the emphasis was there. Two wks ago it became Belly Bar & Grill, whose logo is the image known as the mudflap girl, and whose website touts it as follows: “mediocre food, so-so service, but … the hottest waitresses in dallas!” Right on to the tongue & cheek tone; good to see new biz in deep ellum; but hope the burgers, cheezsteaks, and “dirty bird” fried-chick samwiches aren’t mediocre. The owners are a pair of lawyers; the chef previously worked at that well known foodie spot the Men’s Club.

2801 Commerce St. (214) 969-0905