Gettin' Wild at The Civic Center, Trimethyldioxypurist-style
Jury duty. Ack. While we won't get into the specifics behind our general reluctance in doing our civic duty, we were glad for the opportunity to revisit one of our favorite coffee joints -- Wild Awakenings, 142 McAllister Street, right behind U.N. Plaza. This used to be our daily spot when we worked around here; we hadn't been since about August 2003.
There's a lot to like about Wild Awakenings -- the atmosphere is one. The space is HUGE; it's littered with chairs and tiny round, wooden tables, with a single couch of dubious cleanliness in the back. Aside from the couch, the place is spotless, if a bit rustic -- there's a real honest, hard-working, made-on-elbow-grease feeling. Lots of art -- both framed and directly on the walls, not to mention that cool coffee-joint-menu chalk-art -- lend to that arty community feel. The music while we were there was great; blues in the background, just loud enough to listen or ignore at one's leisure. Lots of food options available; fresh salads, baked goods, and more. There are four computers with Web access; rates are $3 for 20 minutes and $7 for an hour. This is also the first coffee joint we've seen that offers California Lottery tickets -- this place wears many hats.
But it's still mainly a coffee place. For those buying coffee beans in bulk, there are tons of blends available. For those of us that want to drink our coffee in this pleasant, airy, friendly place, the options are also numerous.
Cool option #1: Four sizes of regular drip coffee (small, medium, large, and extra large). And the prices are more than reasonable; the small goes for $1.15, the X-L for $1.85. Hmmm, the sizes are in plain ol' English and it's the cheapest per fluid ounce I've found. Take that, Starbucks.
(Curious side note #1: speaking of the "evil empire" -- there aren't so many of them in the Civic Center/'Loin area. Closest we could see was a few blocks up Market Street. Hmph. go figure. However, there were a ton -- TON -- of tiny little espresso shops throughout the "Tendernob"/Tenderloin area that we really wanted to try. Perhaps we will. Anecdotal evidence that the small coffee shop is still viable when MegaGiantCoffee stays away.)
Okay, so onto the real stuff -- how was that cheap coffee?
The regular joe (which on the day we visited was "Sina's Blend") was very nice. Fairly dark, very flavorful, a little bitter in a nice way, nice, almost sweet finish. We enjoyed it greatly. We did not especially enjoy, however, the lack of a cheaper refill, as is standard with most other local shops your Trimethyldioxypurist has visited. However, Wild Awakenings does have some sort of frequent drinker's card (the details of which we did not obtain). Also, this concern is mitigated by the previously mentioned great initial prices.
We also tried a cappuccino. At $2.50 for a double, once again the price was right. This is the cheapest such drink we've encountered. The foam was perfect. The rest of it wasn't quite up to that level: while it was nicely bitter, the flavor was a little bland overall--just passable--and the slightly sour finish somewhat hurt it. Criticism aside, it was decent, and we would recommend it beyond just the nice foam and the good price.
(Curious side note #2: This is one of the first places we've been where the latte costs more than the cappuccino. If only Mrs. Trimeth were here, that we could have sampled it. Alas, we were alone on this trip.)
There are interesting-sounding specials, including "Turkish" versions of a couple drinks and an iced-coffee concoction of some sort ("Sina's Special") that certainly merit consideration, if not further investigation.
Overall, we enjoy Wild Awakenings. It nicely straddles being a casual, affordable neighborhood hangout with the concerns of those looking for quality espresso products. Anybody on jury duty on McAllister, visiting the nearby library or City Hall, or working in the area should enjoy it as much as we did.