Sept. 11 is here

Celebrate EVERYTHING this weekend, coffee shop fans!

It's Patriot Day, and memorial events for 9/11 include an observance at the Winston-Salem Air Show and a downtown ceremony. Gov. Purdue has asked everyone to participate in a day of service to honor this day. Second Harvest Food Bank is holding a drive-by food drop off, Piedmont Rehab is hosting a volunteer day to help care for critters, and I'm sure there are other opportunities out there.

Celebrate the arts & literacy. Our facebook page has a post about the incredible number of events happening in Winston-Salem. I'm already chasing my tail, so I haven't even looked for events in the rest of the Triad!

Tonight is another Winston-Salem Shuffle at Krankie's. Coffee shops, if your events aren't listed on the events page, please email coffeecat@earthlink.net or just post a comment here to promote your event!

Vote for Coffee!

It's time for the goTriad Readers' Choice 2010. Vote for your favorite coffee! Also consider Triad Coffee Shops when you're voting for farmers' market, music venue, wine shop, gift shop, ice cream & more.

Can you find more categories that encompass coffee shops? Voting ends midnight Sept. 15.

Got Coffee?

If this is how you plan to spend your weekend, you need coffee!
If this is how you feel when your alarm clock rings, you need coffee!
If this is how you feel after a wild night at a Triad Coffee Shop, uh, hmmm, how might I say this delicately . . . you might be a groundhog!

Hansel & Gretel of

Piedmont Wildlife Rehab, Inc.

No matter who you are, there's a Triad Coffee Shop you're bound to love. If you work a 9 to 5 downtown, there are plenty of shops there. If you work a noon to 9 at the mall, grab a cuppa joe on your dinner break or stop by to catch the last bit of live music on the way home.

If you're doggone broke, save your Coke & Cheez-It money all week and scrape together 10 bucks for your weekend entertainment. Many coffee shop events are free, while others charge a $3 cover. What a bargain!

Coffee Road Trip: Charlotte

CoffeeCat is jealous! All the time I spend in coffee shops, and I never got the brilliant idea to create works of art from coffee stir sticks and other materials found in coffee shops. Sigh.

I'll have to let the McColl Center for Visual Art explain this one:

uploaded from http://www.jonathanbrilliant.com/

"Jonathan Brilliant, who uses only coffee stir sticks, creates installations that are both ironic and labor intensive with a traditional craft sensibility. Inspired by the visual phenomena of patterning and mark-making, Brilliant’s installation, “Have Sticks Will Travel” uses the coffee shop as a natural environment and a common material found within most coffee shops, to suggests that the coffee shop and related consumer environs are more organic and nurturing than the “real” natural environment."

An opening reception is scheduled Sept. 24, 2010, from 6 to 9 p.m. The exhibit will be there until January, so there's NO EXCUSE for coffee shop fans to miss it.


What about it, readers? Do you think the coffee shop is more organic and nurturing than the environment?

Back to School

Coffee shop fans can feel good about spending money at Triad Coffee Shops. Sure, it costs more than brewing coffee at home. Yes, the economy is tough. But the benefits of your coffee shop coin reach far beyond a mere caffeine fix. 

Now that school is back in session, it's a good time to recognize the students who work at coffee shops. Many coffee shops rely on high school and college students to work nights and weekends. These student baristas work hard at serving customers and, when business is slow, they can snatch a few minutes to do homework.

Your coffee money helps create jobs that benefit not only the small business owners, but the students they employ. Your tips help even more! So, although we may never be able to endow a scholarship, coffee shop fans are helping students pay for their education and earn valuable real-world experience in pleasant surroundings.

You never know -- your local barista may someday be your child's teacher, an Oscar-winning producer, a biomedical engineer, or owner of your favorite coffee shop. Wow, think of the possibilities -- and remember this post when you're standing by the tip jar waiting for your drink. (hint, hint)

Have a great school year, everyone!

Vitamins C & D at a Triad Coffee Shop

I stopped by a new coffee shop, The Braided Cord Coffee & Book in Clemmons. As soon as you walk into the shop, you'll see posted a reference to Ecclesiastes 4:12. I was curious, so I looked it up:
"A person standing alone can be attacked and defeated, but two can stand back-to-back and conquer. Three are even better, for a triple-braided cord is not easily broken." (New Living Translation)

Sounds like hand-to-hand combat - in a coffee shop? Hmm, need more research! Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary, explains:

"In all things union tends to success and safety, but above all, the union of Christians. They assist each other by encouragement, or friendly reproof. They warm each other's hearts while they converse together of the love of Christ, or join in singing his praises. Then let us improve our opportunities of Christian fellowship."

A ha! Coffee, ice cream, books, background music, comfortable seats, a peaceful patio - it all adds up to Christian fellowship. While you're soaking up some Vitamin D from the rays of sun beaming onto the patio, you can enjoy some Vitamin C - Christian fellowship.

What vitamins do you get from your favorite coffee shop?