Ah, the inevitable holiday travel. What's an SFist to do but write somethin' anyway? Well, hey, man -- they got coffee in Boston too.
Does the concept of a drive-thru window for your morning coffee sound odd?
Not so odd in Beantown.
It's an interesting juxtaposition.
The Boston and San Francisco areas have many similarities -- they are both port cities with prominent Italian neighborhoods, politics that trend toward the liberal, and a bevy of great museums, learning institutions, and restaurants. Oh, and both had some pretty high-profile stories regarding same-sex marriage in 2004.
Not so similar? The coffee. And how they drink it. At least how a great number of them do.
While most have probably heard of Dunkin' Donuts, you may not know of its prominence on the East Coast. Despite the name, baked goods take a back seat to the coffee, which Dunkin' Donuts sells both by the cup or in bulk. In fact, its Web site proclaims that, "Dunkin' Donuts is America's largest retailer of coffee-by-the-cup, serving nearly 1 billion cups of brewed coffee each year."
Of the interesting differences between Dunkin' Donuts and a cafe closer to what we are familiar with in the 'Sco:
1) The coffee -- they definitely go for the "weaker, but more of it" philosophy, and offer it in huge cups that you could probably stick an entire donut into.
2) As mentioned above -- a drive-thru!?!? While not every single location has one, many, many do.
3) And, last, the preparation -- evidently, the fact that we put our own creamer and sweetener into our coffee makes us suckers. At Dunkin' Donuts, they do it for you -- as in "I'd like a large coffee with milk and two equals," or "I'd like a regular" (a.k.a. cream & sugar).
Okay, so while we've established that coffee/caffeine-laden drinks are used for more than a morning quickstart, that jolt of java to start or sustain your day seems to be the primary use. Even so, there was some trimethyldioxy-confusion -- are the folks in New England so much more in a rush than we on left coast that they need coffee jerks to put the cream in? So rushed that they can't pahhk the cahh first -- that they need a drive-thru?
Well, guess what? Then the snow storm hit the day after Christmas, and the reasons behind the three main differences were clear.
1) When it's that cold and nasty out, you want more hot liquid, not less -- strength of brew be damned.
2) When it's that cold and nasty out you don't want to leave your damned car if possible, thus the drive-thru.
3) And, finally, when it's that cold and nasty out, who has time to futz with cream and sugar? With taking off a lid? You probably don't want to take your gloves off. You definitely just want to keep moving and get where you're going.
Would a drive-thru for a coffee joint work out here? We're not sure; it's this SFist's opinion that those who would use it are probably already patrons of places where coffee is an afterthought, like Mickey D's or similar. And such a place would likely miss out on the rather prominent Muni/Bart crowd.
But here in SF, you never know.
Mad props to sister-in-law Cindie for driving in crappy, slippery, cold, and snowy conditions, which allowed for both of the pics above.
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Oy is Dunkin' Donuts coffee bad. Going to school in New York, my eastern Mass friends would pine for it like some sort of Olympian nectar. I, of course, was busy pining for Torrefazione (which finally appeared in Manhattan my senior year at the Union Square Virgin Megastore -- god bless them). When I made it up there on the Greyhound, I was convinced that my friends from New England had their taste buds surgically removed at birth or something. Worse than mouthwash mixed with motor oil. If you want a cup of weak drive-thru coffee, keep driving until you cross the border for Tim Horton's.
Mmmm... Timmy's....
What? I like my coffee (large double-double) bladder busting and with the beans just held near the pot.
Not to disagree with our fearless leader . . . but:
You know, I suppose I should have mentioned that I liked the coffee well enough. I mean, it is what it is -- weaker, neutral coffee that will appeal to a broad spectrum of folks. You don't go to McDonald's expecting a porterhouse; DD's was about as satisfying as, say, a 6-piece chicken mcnuggets. With less grease. And more caffeine. And they added the BBQ sauce for me. Okay, a metaphor run amok.
I'm happy to try Tim Horton's if it's in the SFist budget . . .
First of all, disagree with me all you want. Everyone else does!
And no, it's not in the budget, although I'm sure we can put Torontoist on the case.
Oy! i actually liked DD's coffee the first time i had, even if it was a little on the too sweet side. it seems like a serious tradition there, like drinking guinness in england.
Duh - hello - over here. No good Canadian goes into foreign lands without a stash of Timmy's coffee. And Diner Kraft Dinner, but that's another post.
A long time ago in a galaxy not too far away, the US of A was a land virtually untouched by gourmet coffee. I can remember long family road trips up and down the eastern seaboard when Dunkin' Donuts was seriously the best thing going when it comes to coffee.
And I must admit, while I am usually a black-no-sugar purist, I occasionally get a hankering for a DD "regulah" (sweet, sweet full fat cream mmm) especially in months that end in "-ary".
The last time I was in Boston I finally buckled and tried DD coffee, to see what the hype was about.
It totally grossed me out. I hate sugar in my coffee, and it tasted heavily pre-sweetened. Yucko. Give me Peet's or Royal any day.
Hey, there's that new drive-through coffee place on Van Ness and Duboce/Division, Java Detour. I always see it from the 101 Mission Street offramp, but I've never actually seen anyone patronizing it. (I did see a lady peeing in its adjoining alley, though.)
I have to admit, Washington is now rife with drive-thru espresso joints. There are three - three! - in the mountain town of Granite Falls, pop. 2,347. The guys driving the dump trucks from the gravel quarries get their cup at 4am on the way to work.
But the point is that they serve delicious espresso, not the urine of a diabetic warthog. They don't even have drip coffee -- you have to order an Americano. I'm just as confused as you are why Washington became the nation's leader in delicious coffee (I think it has to do with the gray-sky induced depression, and I know it has nothing to do with Starbucks), but if you like your drive-thru and you like your coffee, that's the place to be.
The Pacific Northwest is full of great coffee and the drive-thru espresso is an offshoot of both that and the weather. Who wants to get out of the car in the rain, either?
But having a Dunkin' Donuts coffee while home on the East Coast is satifying in a whole 'nother way. It tastes about as much like coffee as Sunny D tastes like orange juice. Yet - oddly comforting.