For me, Saturday was a day filled with experiences that I'd like to build a frame around and hang up on my wall. From my apartment, I walked to Alterra on Prospect, where Scott Lucey was presiding as barista-in-chief. It was a perfect opportunity to try a double shot of the Honduras Capucas Fausto microlot as espresso. The espresso was definitely worth trying, but it seemed not quite on a par with the regular Espresso Toro or some of the single origin espressos offered this year. Even more happily, I ran into a fellow coffee connoisseur and his wife.
I had intended to write a follow-up post to that from last weekend, but it may be better to just fold it into this post, as Alterra on Prospect is a perfect example of a sociopetal space. In the conversation with my friend, he mentioned that he knew he would see me there sooner or later, as if Alterra were a current that would draw us both in towards the center at some point. The experience stood in stark contrast to all the time I've spent in sociofugal spaces over the past two-and-a-half years--experiences I now look back on ruefully. I'm thinking particularly of time spent in some hell-a-thon Starbucks or, even worse, Borders or Barnes & Noble. It's not these companies that are evil, but rather the strategy of hiring (at least mostly) indifferent teenagers to serve up an indifferent product and experience. Contrast this with the mastery of Lucey and his fellow baristi.
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