Archive for June, 2009

I never thought I would have to use my NW7 tag again (especially in the same year), guess I was wrong. Yep, I’m going to China for about two weeks! Sadly not via J class, although I’ll get to spend some time in a few first class hotels, I really loved my time at the Hyatt Regency Kyoto and want to try and repeat that experience. I’ll fly into Hong Kong, meet up with a friend, and continue throughout the country until I fly out of Beijing.

So what can you (all of two readers, if that) expect? Firstly, this time around I’ll be sure to bring a decent tripod, an accessory that I sorely missed while in Japan. So expect some great decent pictures. I’ll also try to get some more posts up this time around, I never got as many up as I wanted for Japan, mostly because I didn’t have the time after I returned. So be sure to check back near the end of August for some amazing trip reports! That is, provided the unstoppable swine flu "pandemic" doesn’t spread any further . . .

I almost gave up hope on finding a decent cup of coffee, so much so that last week I decided to go out for sushi at Shibui which I might add was fantastic. I ordered the Sashimi dinner, which was perfect, by far the best Sashimi I’ve had since Japan. They also had Uni sushi, which I haven’t even seen in Minnesota, which was a nice surprise.

After some searching, I discovered Brew which was located in Ft. Lauderdale, had some excellent reviews (aside from the one which said it resembled "set of Friends, hanging with Phoebe and Joey," that nearly made me throw up) especially regarding their coffee. Brew has two locations relatively close to each other, which was good since the original Brew was extremely busy with no parking in sight. Thankfully, the second location was nearby. The cappuccino I ordered was good, not excellent, but the best cup of coffee I’ve had in Miami thus far. The foam was actually well developed, however I was hoping for a ceramic cup instead of the paper to-go cup I received. As such, it was marginally better then Starbucks, but to be honest I could have produced a better cup at home. I later came back to Ft. Lauderdale to try Undergrounds Coffehaus, this was a massive disappointment as far as their coffee was concerned. The cafe has a lot of character, however the coffee was abysmal. The "barista" took the shot way to fast, didn’t even bother to tamp the shot properly, and could not froth milk whatsoever. The end product was lukewarm coffee flavored milk; in my opinion it was barley drinkable.

Perhaps my standards are too high, however Miami hasn’t impressed me at all with their coffee selection. I’ll stop by Segafredo before I leave just out of curiously, but I’m not holding my breath. Perhaps I’ll enjoy some more first class sushi instead with the time I have left.

P.S. Sorry about the complete lack of pictures. I left my camera at home, so sadly there will be no Miami pictures this time around.

I really want to love this place; from the attractive setting in the heart of Miami Beach to the two level “loft” feel, it has all the right elements to be a great cafe. However, whereas Luna Cafe had a problem with atmosphere, Lofty Latte lacks in the quality of coffee.

To be brutally honest, I see this place closing within a year or two, I’ve seen this happen more then once with new start-up cafes. Its right in Miami Beach, subsequently the rent can’t be that cheap. Combined with the fact they’ve done everything they could to make the place look like a professional (Starbucks) cafe, complete with custom cups, menus, and twin La Cimbali super automatics. Their website does seem to be more store oriented selling coffee related items, so perhaps that revenue combined with the cafe will keep this operation afloat. In any case the coffee leaves much to be desired.

Where to start. I ordered a cappuccino to accompany my meal and sat in the second level overlooking the cafe. My first observation was how empty the cafe was. Granted, it was a Tuesday night, but after a while I was the only one left at around 7:00pm, later some other customers arrived however I don’t see how they can make any money with the hours they’re currently open. When my cappuccino arrived, it was in a “to go” paper cup instead of a ceramic, even though I explicitly told them I would be dining in. Upon opening the lid, the foam was too light, and had the visible consistency of dish soap bubbles, no microfoam to speak of. The ratio of milk to espresso was way to high, more on the lines of a cafe latte rather than a cappuccino, in fact it felt like I was drinking hot milk with coffee flavor. The size was also annoying; a small entailed a 12oz cup, filled to the brim with only a half inch of poorly developed foam. The temperature was constant however, although I would contend the cappuccino I had previously at Luna Cafe was far better. This was more reminiscent of something I’d get at Starbucks.

So far things are not looking good for coffee in Miami, and to be honest I wasn’t expecting much to begin with. As far as I can tell, this place along with Out of the Blue, are the only two late night cafes that really peaked my interest. If worse comes to worse I guess I could stop by the Segafredo cafe, although I’m almost positive that would be a disappointment. Perhaps I should abandon my search for good coffee and re-direct my efforts towards sushi.

There is a certain stigma when dining alone, in fact I hate it. But under circumstances such as business travel it becomes unavoidable and small price to pay for a decent meal. Yesterday, I decided to have dinner at Luna Cafe, after reading some good reviews it seemed like a good Italian cafe at an excellent price point. It was more formal than I had expected, as cafe was in the name, however I was promptly seated and ordered a glass of Malbec. To my annoyance, my waiter wasn’t convinced of the authenticity of my Minnesota drivers license and thought it prudent to bring this to the attention of his manager. As I sat, waiting for my wine, I was ever aware of the two of them discussing my position as they talked amongst themselves near the kitchen entrance. I don’t mind being carded, but if I was trying to pull one over to get some booze I would have gone elsewhere, say a bar perhaps (or I would have orderd my wine on-line, I should have thought of that before I was 21 . . .). When I was in San Francisco, I was only carded once out of the dozens of wine tastings and dinners I had, and the validity of my license was never questioned. After concluding that my license was genuine, I placed my order and waited, awkwardly checking my cell phone and glancing over at the TV near the bar attempting to catch some updates on the AF447 crash. This is by far the worst part of dining alone, but has the added benefit of being able to eavesdrop on nearby conversations. I noticed some of the diners around me, especially one lady who thought it was a good idea to put ice cubes in her Chardonnay. The food was decent for the price, although the vegetables seemed undercooked a bit although the wine pared well. Then the fire alarm went off. I sat relaxed at my table as the owner assured everyone the building was safe, despite the loud automated messages to evacuate the building and to use the stairs instead of the elevators.

Since I previously wrote I would attempt to center this trip around coffee, and I wanted to end my meal on a positive note, I decided to order post-meal cappuccino. I didn’t see an espresso machine at the bar but from the label on the cup I received (and from the taste), I assume they were serving Lavazza beans. The cappuccino I received was marginal at best. I’m not a huge fan of Lavazza to begin with; despite that fact, the cappuccino had minimal foam and was topped with coco powder (which I didn’t request). The ratio of milk to espresso was far to high, and the drink was well over 160F, more on the range of 180-190F inducing a burnt taste. To top it off, they did not pre-heat their cups and the shot seemed to have been taken in haste with a bitter-watery feel in the espresso, devoid of any substantial crema. Granted, this was still miles ahead of Starbucks, however I was expecting something more from an Italian restaurant with Cafe in its name. I would go back if I had the chance, but with only two weeks back in Miami this won’t be a repeat.