Milwaukee Specialty Food and Coffee

Editiorials: Current Events: Not Just Flyover Country

I'm always a sucker for random pictures on Facebook.  A folder labeled simply "Mobile Uploads" with miscellaneous snapshots is sure to attract my curiosity.  I haven't had much time for Facebook recently--or much of anything else.  Still, I usually surf for a half-hour or so at the end of the night and recently found this picture, uploaded by one of my Dominican classmates.

(Courtesy of Christina Breunig-Salata)

The picture shows a house being razed to clear land for an expansion of O'Hare Airport.  My classmate's husband is a firefighter, and was taking part in a training exercise called a "burn."  It looks like the house will be set on fire using explosives.

My love of all things Chicagoland is hard to overstate--and O'Hare is, to me, kind of the nexus of it all.  As those who know my life story will understand, to me it is almost a proxy for Germany, as it is where most of my trips to that country have begun and ended.  Some of these represented life transitions.  Perhaps that's why it seems poignant to me that a family home would be razed to, albeit indirectly, make such journeys possible.

To take this story on an additional tangent, I find that the modesty of the home provides an additional level of poignancy.  The immediate surroundings of airports tend to be lower-middle class--and as in so many areas of life, it falls to that group to bear the burden of our society's luxury and frivolity.  Indeed, the airport expansion also seeks to displace the bodies of the dead from their homes, as it were.  I am by no means a Luddite, but it would seem that O'Hare has probably long passed the point where any further expansion only adds to inefficiency and makes it even more unwieldy.  Too bad some of that capacity can't be moved up here--but then again, then there'd have to be HIGH-SPEED TRAINS to get people back and forth.

And yet another tangent: it's hard not to reflect on the bloodletting Democrats experienced in yesterday's elections.  I'm distressed, one of the chief reasons being the dogmatically anti-transit stance of the Republicans.  I really don't know WTF the angry (mostly upper-)middle-class white males who played a large part in bringing this upon us would have us do--spend our entire lives driving and funneling money to the Middle East?  Still, I hope that Democrat voters like myself will take this experience to heart and rededicate the party to the middle-class dream.  While also a member of the middle class, I have no illusions that with all my fancy talkin'--often German fancy talkin'--I'm important in the grand scheme of things.  If I get in a car accident, it will be up to people like those in the photo above to scrape my fancy pants off the pavement.  These invaluable people and their best interests should never be "flyover country," literally or metaphorically.  Perhaps electoral success for Democrats will come only after they realign themselves with these values.

Chicago: Previews: KnockBox Cafe

Was clicking around the CoffeeGeek forums and happened to see mention of the KnockBox Cafe.  Definitely looks like one for me to check out!

Chicago: Intelligentsia: Millenium Park

I'm at Chicago's Intelligentsia location near Millenium Park. Open only a few years, it's already been completely redesigned since I last spent any amount of time here. To be honest, I liked the interior design better before.  However, the bar itself has been tweaked to incorporate a wide variety of brewing methods with maximum efficiency.  It has something of an aspect of Kopp's fountain at full tilt.  And indeed, on this blustery Great Lakes day when even I couldn't get excited about being outdoors, they are at full tilt.  I think the guy who was sitting in front of me on the Metra in from Highland Park might be here.  Wouldn't that be odd?  All roads lead to Intelligentsia...

I see pourover, Synesso espresso, one Clover that hasn't been used while I've been here, and some odd contraption in front of me that looks vaguely drug paraphernalia-ish.  (I guess that outs me as a coffee Philistine--someone send me back to Bruegger's where I belong!)  I'm taking a pound of Zirikana, Rwanda: Bufcafe ($17.00--interestingly, they have to charge sales tax on pounds of coffee here) home with me.

Preview: Music: U2 360 Tour at Soldier Field

Late this afternoon, I'll be heading down to Chicago's Soldier Field for tonight's U2 360 Tour concert.  On the way, I'll probably stop at Intelligentsia's Millenium Park location.  It'll be a late night, so I'll probably be investigating the coffee options when I get to the stadium, too.

Chicago: Snapshots: The Corner Bakery Cafe (Northbrook, IL)

Three summers ago, I drove down to Ravinia to see Amy Grant, never having been there before.  I had some time to kill, so I stopped at a nearby mall, called Northbrook Court.  I stopped at The Corner Bakery Cafe for a snack, and was mightily impressed.  Saturday,  I finally had a chance to return (though I've been in the neighborhood since, I didn't make it back to the mall for whatever reason).  The actual experience exceeded my already positive memories by far.

I'd had coffee (of course) the first time I was there, and remembered that it was good.  Saturday, I found that at least one of the four varieties offered, the Baker's Blend, was almost absurdly good for a chain.  In terms of flavor and strength, it reminded me of one of the better Alterra offerings (like in the upper 25% of Alterra drip coffees).

Chicagoland: Snapshot: Starbucks (Lake Cook & Deerfield Rd.)

After an effortless, reasonably fast drive using my handy shortcut, I'm in Chicago's exurbia--fortunately, one of its nicer stretches.  I'm down here to make a deposit to my bankrupt bank (don't worry, folks, my checks are good because it has since been bought out by Chase, but you may remember that WaMu was one of the institutions brought down by the subprime mortgage crisis).  

Like many Chicagoland locations, this one has the expanded food menu that's not available in Milwaukee at all to my knowledge.  I sampled a Power Protein Plate ($4.95 or $4.45 with my Gold discount).  It's basically a light, healthy snack, albeit one that doesn't fit into my personal austerity program.  Heck, two bucks more buys me about 10 times as many calories at Pizza Shuttle.   Though the expiration date label indicates that the Protein Plate was still eligible to be sold tomorrow, the mini bagel was so stale as to be borderline inedible.  I buy day-old bakery at almost every opportunity, and hardly ever notice any degradation of quality.  That goes to show how old the bagel must have been.

Snapshot: Metropolis (Chicago)

I'm at Metropolis Coffee in Chicago.  The need to make a WaMu bank deposit finally motivated me to brave the traffic.  I thought this would be a decent drive compared to Intelligentsia a couple miles south on Broadway, but that was not to be.  As always, I found myself getting off 41 in Skokie, driving through ever-denser inner-ring suburbs, then driving east on W. Devon St. through the international bazaar (Yulinka Cooks has blogged about it), which was hopping on this warm Sunday and thus hellish to drive down. 

I must confess that the logistics were enough of a pain for me to think: "This better be good!"  And it was.  The espresso (pictured above) had racing stripes down the side of the cup.  Look at that crema!  The espresso had a lighter-roasted taste than Alterra's, but was either equally good or just a hare better.  Currently playing on the sound system is Simple Minds' "Promised You A Miracle", which followed U2's "With or Without You."  That's a one-two punch I would never expect to hear in a coffeehouse.

Chicago: Intelligentsia Millenium Park Video

Chicago: Clovered at Last in Chicago

I'm at Intelligentsia Millenium Park, where I've just had my first cup of Clover coffee, to wit the Finca Matalpa El Salvador ($2.40+tax for a 12 oz.).  Now I don't know how to separate brewing method from coffee, but my verdict is that I am glad to have tried it, but wouldn't go out of my way to have it again.  The cup was very clean tasting, rather ueber-filtered.  My favorite brewing method is cupping, so if you know anything about cupping you know that that's pretty much the opposite.

Surprisingly, I'm on free Wi-Fi (surprising because this must be an absolute madhouse in summer), though it may be unofficial.  An unsecured "linksys" network was availabe in addition to the Webbeams service (which, I think, is the official Wi-Fi).

I made a little video that I'll post later.

Growing Power Staves Off Growing Produce Costs

Karen Herzog of JSOnline reported Sunday that, despite rising food costs, Growing Power, the nonprofit urban farming organization and land trust with operations in Milwaukee and Chicago, is still offering their Farm-City Market Baskets for just $14 each.

Filled with seasonal fruits and veggies grown with sustainable methods, one basket can provide a weekly supply of fresh produce for up to four people.

Part of Growing Power's ambitious mission is offer a fair food price to all, but particularly to those city dwellers at low income levels who often have limited access to fresh produce and who may otherwise go without.

Link