Pondit — lovely, well-written article. You’re lucky that indie coffee shops actually produce excellent coffee where you live; I haven’t been served a drinkable espresso yet at the cafes near my home in San Diego. Shame, really, because I visit them for that unvarnished, funky, intellectual vibe, and two of them produce incredibly tasty food in-house. I usually just order that, or tea that I don’t have at home.

If a local branch of Starbucks made latte-art for me or in some way attempted to blend in with the local environment, I would keep visiting them. Its not that I absolutely ban myself from going there. But so far in my experience, I have yet to be in a Starbucks that does this: be it among the ubiquitous stores in Washington DC or the single store they have in our small college town.

I admit while traveling frequently, it is tough to avoid them and I don’t because the alternatives at airports and such are worse.

Last week, I was in San Diego – and for a couple of days I had to go to Starbucks till I asked the concierge at the hotel and found, once again, an excellent local place that made some heavenly espresso.

You bring up the point that they are opening tons of new stores every day, and complain that people are having to wait in line for frappuccinos, etc. You don’t think there is a connection between the two… ? Could it be that the reason they open a store on every corner is because they don’t want people to wait in line?

I know some folks who work for the company, and they love it. They get treated well, they get health insurance, and stock. No mom and pop place can take care of their employees that well. And you are right, if it weren’t for Starbucks, the mom & pop places wouldn’t even exist, or at least they wouldn’t be doing so well.

I travel a lot and don’t have the luxery of viewing the world from some little college town. Sometimes Starbucks is all there is, and you know what? I don’t have a problem with that. If there was just one Starbucks in your town and they were not a large chain, would you still hate them? What if they made latte art for you, would you still give the same evaluation? Ask yourself these questions. There are too many knee-jerk reactions to anything that comes under the heading of “corporation.” It’s not a rational argument.

Thanks for the website, it looks really good. I’ll check and see if they stock any Italian brands, I’ve been looking for one in particular (which is why I asked what brand of coffee you use for your espresso).