Eh… I’d say it’s more like walking into a Five Guys and asking for a ‘burger’, in that there is an archetype for what a plain coffee/burger is, and if you were in a stereotypical diner you probably wouldn’t need to be more specific in your order (at most you might need to answer to “creamandsugar?” or “cheese?” respectively). Whereas ‘sandwich’ is a broad category and there’s no archetypical example.
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There is no place in Portland more than a mile from the nearest Starbucks. You can’t have 1% growth a year with that kind of saturation.
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I think he was being a little hyerbolic… I know when I go in the QFC or Safeway kiosk if there are others in line ahead of me they want grande mocha with 2 shots of some other flavor or worse… That is not coffee.
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Yeah, it kinda does. Your coffee sucks, and people are finally waking up to the fact that pretty much anywhere else does it better.
@jons, & @Grey_Devil: Ann Arbor has a rebounding independent coffee retail market, which is nice, but it seems like it took way too long for the rebound to happen.
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I only just ask for coffee and its always served to me plain black so this seems unnecessary. Plus diners usually have the sugar & creamer at the table for you to use or not use.
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They do have really great coffee, the problem is that its not the coffee that they brew. They keep the good stuff for sale/display, however you can request for them to brew you a cup of coffee with any beans that they have in the store but they don’t advertise that. Having worked there i was required to try all of their special/fancy coffee and there’s definitely some gems.
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In some areas, ‘coffee regular’ is the most common phrase but it actually doesn’t mean what it says
Indeed! Traveling abroad has opened my eyes to the different standard configurations… funny how in the us, diner coffee culture set the standard of black, drip coffee as the norm (though it’s clearly no longer). I bet it has something to do with the automated drip coffee machines becoming ubiquitous since they didn’t require expertise to run like an espresso machine…
I think coffee has been going the way of craft beer for a long time now. People have been eschewing the big corporate operations for something more local. My city has far more independent coffee shops than starbucks and they all are doing very well.
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Philly’s a Wawa town. I really dislike Starburnt’s “coffee”.
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So what you’re saying is, there’s still a niche for the Starbucks vendor who wants to nest a franchise in a franchise in a franchise?
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I knew him as Hans Gruber.
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He’ll always be Dr Lazarus to me
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That would require them not burning the shit out of their beans in a failed attempt to copy Peet’s equally undrinkable roasts.
Unfortunately a lot of people now think that is what coffee is supposed to taste like. We have a local roaster in our town and he does the same thing. I mean I guess some people like it or don’t know any different, and it probably hides the taste of poor quality beans, but once you have spent quality time in Melbourne and Wellington and had real fresh roasted coffee you can’t go back to the burnt stuff
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Same level of “righteously pissed-off,” different era.
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TBH I am far from a coffee connoisseur so what they do with the beans (an issue for others it seems) bothers me not a lot.
But I have no comprehension as to what almost any of their menu item coffees actually are. It’s like a totally foreign language to me. How do people come to understand it?
I pine for the days when a ‘greasy spoon’ type ‘caff’ did instant Nescafe (powder, not granules, natch) and the sugar was in a large bowl and the teaspoon was chained to the counter.
(shouty alert)
I JUST WANT A CUP OF EFFING COFFEE FFS!! Black hot stuff with a dash or two of cold milk.
How effing hard can it be?
Apparently umpteen varieties of long tall short frappa cappa skinny fat fuckwittery hard.
I do not want to learn an entire new lexicon just get a cup of coffee.
(Yeah, and get of my effing lawn while you’re there.) 
ETA do Starbucks have a ‘Long Tall Sally’ on the menu yet. Give it time…
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I usually ask for their regular brew of breakfast coffee since its not burned to shit and then ask it with an added shot of espresso to kick it up a notch. Results are pretty good. Then again i go to Starbucks like once every 2 years
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And there we go again. (Not aimed at you but…) how am I supposed to understand the difference between ther breakfast coffee and any other (elevenses cofffee? lunchtime coffee? afternoon tea coffee? supper coffee? dinner coffee? … see how ignorant I am? 
)
A coffee’s a coffee.
And now I’ll ostracise myself (even further) from everyone else - well the coffee people - here by admitting I only ever drink decaff these days anyway, as the real stuff acts on me as a diuretic and also gets me too ‘wiry’.
Again, I’ll get my coat.
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