Creative sustainability in a cool #coffeehouse concept by Starbucks

While traveling across the US visiting local coffeehouses, I get to see lots and lots of trains, both moving and retired.  This has given me time to dream of the possibilities of building a house out of old train cars and cargo containers … the ideas are so much fun to conceptualize.  Who wants a ho-hum house when you can live in something unique that is cool enough to also use recycled material?

Here is one way to make it happen … AND by serving the almighty-coffee out of its belly, it’s even better!  

by Dear Coffee, I Love You

On December 13, just south of Starbuck’s hometown of Seattle, a new drive-thru location opened up in Tukwila, Washington. Unlike the other 17,000 locations though, this one is built from reused shipping containers. Green architecture isn’t new for Starbucks, last year they began opening LEED certified cafés around the world, but this is the first one utilizing cargotecture—the reuse of cargo shipping containers for architecture.

Starbuck’s isn’t the first coffee company to use shipping containers (Illy previously used a transforming shipping container as a café at the Venice Biannale and Ritual Proxy opened this summer in San Francisco) nor is their architect the first to design with them—though they speak as if they were:  ”We were able to open our minds to the use of very common elements destined for the landfill as structure for a high-quality, drive-thru coffee house design – essentially creating an industrial beacon for sustainable thinking.” –Tony Gale III

I’m a big fan of shipping container architecture and applaud reuse in any form—however, I find it ironic that the modest green giant’s “beacon for sustainable thinking” is a drive-thru coffee shop in the suburbs. Maybe the sheer spectacle will introduce a unique perspective to a new audience, but I don’t see how a line of idling cars waiting for their trenta ice coffee is a beacon for anything other than the worst of American consumerism and suburban sprawl.

For being as large as Starbucks is, they aren’t entirely bad. I may not like their coffee, but I also won’t deny the trail they blazed for specialty coffee or the sustainability efforts they do make. Sadly, the reality of being a publicly-traded company too often encourages them to make decisions that counter all of their positive efforts (like joining the K-Cup trend) for the sake of maximizing profits.

In the long run, if this prototype became the new format for all future drive-thru locations, it could reduce the use of virgin material in construction and inspire other large companies to follow suit. But please Starbucks, show a bit of humility—shipping container architecture is not a Starbucks invention, nor is roasting “light.”

More photos and an interview with Starbucks on Inhabitat

#Coffeehouse conversations

By David Ryan Polgar (Hartford, CT Resident Blogger)

From now until March 11, West Hartford’s Playhouse on Park will be presenting the musical “All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten.”

Clipping from an article about Espresso Yourself in Winterset, IA

The musical is based on a wildly-successful collection of essays published in 1988 by the author and minister Robert Fulghum. The concept is simple — the world would be a better place if we applied the lessons we learned in Kindergarten.

Kindergarten, however, is not the only place where we learn a thing or two about life. For me, everything I need to know I learned in a coffeehouse. If you want to learn about people, grab a cup of coffee and sit down. A coffeehouse provides an ideal environment: customers are well-fed and caffeinated, conversations are free-flowing, and the background music creates a soothing ambiance. Also, given the close quarters, time spent with your drink usually includes overhearing coffeehouse conversations. This unintentional social spying has taught me a lot about relationships.

I’ve noticed that a lot of people go on first dates at coffeehouses. While an upscale restaurant might seem like the obvious choice for the occasion, a coffeehouse makes sense. An upscale restaurant requires a large financial and time commitment—a coffeehouse date is affordable and allows for an open time frame. If the meet-up is going bust, one party has a quick escape hatch. No need to awkwardly utter, “check please.” People, however, are usually at their sharpest when they just finished a double espresso. The likelihood for a spark is greater.

What’s interesting about sitting right next to couple on their first date is that I am an accidental player in their life. How important that date is in the grand scheme of their lives depends on future events that I’ll never be aware of. If the first-date couple go on to marital bliss, then I become a minor actor in a story they will repeat for forty years. “Remember our first date at the coffeehouse…”

I’ve also noticed a great amount of similarity in how first-date couples talk to each other. It’s what I like to call the Greatest Hits Conversation. Given that they don’t know each other well, each person runs through their top hits—their best stories. It’s a selective, well-curated, display of who they are. The greatest hits are catchy and memorable, so there is a good chance that the other person will tune in and nod along. What happens, however, when that couple moves past their greatest hits?

This is what separates the couples that grow from the couples that perish. After the greatest hits have been played over and over, one person either tunes out or digs deeper into the other person’s catalog of stories. As the first-date couple moves along in a relationship they’re either going to develop an appreciation for the b-sides and rarities, or they’re going to decide that they just liked the catchy stuff.

All of this, and more, is on display as you finish your coffee and scone. As Ferris said in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.” A coffeehouse is a great place to catch it.

David Ryan Polgar is a West Hartford resident.

Beans & Sweets Coffee Stop and Bakery in Las Vegas NM (#Coffeehouse)

Char was our barista.  She works for her sister at Beans & Sweets in downtown Las Vegas, NM about 4 miles off I-25.

You can see she enjoys her work, but her passion lies in the sweets.  She bakes all of the goodies in the window right there on site.  We found ourselves buying one scrumptious goody after another.  First a peanut butter cookie, then a baby loaf of banana bread landed in my bag, and can you believe we also bought a brownie and a chocolate covered peanut butter ball. I can’t remember what she called it, but it was ALL to-die-for!!

They  just repainted this little spot and had to shut it down for several days, but after being part of the community for so many years it didn’t effect business one iota.