Red chairs & coffee cups

I have too many email accounts. I made this realization this evening when I opened an email account that I have not checked in a couple of days to discover that I had an email asking me to babysit tonight. In other words I could have been making money tonight if I had fewer email accounts. Lesson learned. Time to cancel the other two accounts.

I always have believed there is a reason for everything. I am home tonight because I did not check one of my older email accounts. If I were babysitting I would not be home. If I were not home I would not be writing this blog entry. Moral of the story: being irresponsible can promote one's creative endeavours (albeit while simultaneously perpetuating the widely held perspective that the creative life is synonymous with poverty).

I am neglecting the red chairs and coffee cups.

Today I went for coffee with my friend Honeylyn. We went to Young Folk & The Kettle Black, the newest coffee shop in town, located on a tiny little street called Water Street that runs parallel to the harbour. I have been to this new coffee spot twice in the last week, and am very quickly becoming rather attached to the place for a number of reasons:

1. I love the way it is nestled into the row of some of the oldest buildings in Charlottetown.

2. I love the large windows, and the way the light falls in from all sides, illuminating the wood floors, whitewashed tables, coffee roasting machine and glass dessert case, and the red chairs. I also love the fabric art decorating the walls that is made by Rebecca, half of the husband and wife team that owns the cafe.

3. I love the art in general. The building actually has an art gallery on the second floor that is the domain of Rebecca, a fabric artist. The gallery displays artwork by various Canadian artists -- jewelers, painters, knitters, weavers, and much more.

 

4.  While Rebecca is busy upstairs her husband Adam is managing the cafe downstairs, and I have to say -- he is doing a superb job. Every little detail is seen to, from the white Christmas lights coiled around the pipes running the length of the ceiling to the cash register, which is an ipad mounted in a wooden frame which is in turn mounted onto a tea kettle base.

 

5. I had not seen one coffee shop in Charlottetown that actually caters to its child customers before entering Young Folk, and now I wonder why more places haven't. I mean what a brilliant idea -- provide a special place that kids can enjoy while their parents savor their coffee and conversations....

 

6. Not only is the atmosphere peaceful and light, the tunes they play are awesome (Bob Dylan), and the drinks rock. I had a cafe mocha. It was creamy with a thick layer of foam on the top and just enough chocolate to take off the bitter edge. Today I also had a smoked turkey, provalone and cranberry goat cheese sandwich with slices of tomato -- they do not yet have gluten-free bread, but they DO make all their sandwich selections wrapped in romaine lettuce leaves. It is not nearly as filling as bread, so I am hoping they get some gluten free bread in there soon, but it was still delicious. I especially enjoyed the cranberry goat cheese. My friend Honeylyn had a Tiramisu which she said was divine, and a latte (also very good). I had gluten free passion fruit mousse for dessert, which, once I had examined it and determined that the cake filling in the centre was truly gluten free (it looked an awful lot like regular cake), was pretty good. I would have liked it to have more passionfuit mousse in it, less chocolate, and perhaps a little less sugar. Next time I will try something else. I was surprised to see that all of their desserts are being shipped in frozen, which I hope they change at some point given what a great opportunity they have to get local bakers to supply them here on the island, but they have only been open a couple weeks, so I figure they will figure these things out with time. They are also planning to start roasting their own beans in the near-future, which will, I believe, be a first for Charlottetown. I cannot wait to taste the result!

This is what my dessert looked like.

Preparing to taste my gorgeous-looking dessert:

This is me inspecting the supposedly gluten-free cake filling suspiciously (unaware that Honeylyn had snuck my camera away from me and was snapping shots of my inspection process!):

This is me subjecting my mousse to closer inspection:

My reaction after Adam assured me that it was most definitely gluten-free, and I had taken my first bite (Apparently I liked it more than I realized!):

My mocha was pretty damn good too:

And of course the company, sitting opposite me amusing herself with my camera, was awesome!

Yup. Pretty happy all around!

I know I missed my Wednesday and Friday posts this week. Hopefully this post makes up for my absence this week! More soon! have a great Saturday night, and a relaxing Sunday. See you here for Gratitude Monday, friends!