coffeeneuring #6, 7, and 8

Coffeeneuring #6: Grace Street Coffee and Dog Tag Bakery (3210 and 3206 Grace St., N.W., Georgetown)

Sunday, Nov. 6; 6 miles
Masala chai and roasted pear and ginger tart (split with Rudi)

Rudi’s and my plan was to ride up to Beach Drive, enjoy the fall colors of Rock Creek Park, and then find someplace for a drink. It started out fine, but at the Taft Bridge, cyclists were coming up the hill to say that the gate was locked at the zoo, making that route impassable. I didn’t fancy going up and around, just to get back down again, so I decided we’d seen enough foliage and, after fooling around on the exercise equipment and snapping a few photos, that we should just skip to the hot drinks.

Rudi said a friend had recommended Grace Street Coffee, a new coffeehouse in Georgetown, so we decided to check them out. Located down the street from Dog Tag Bakery and Chaia Tacos, Grace Street shares its modern space with a juice bar and a gourmet sandwich shop. They also have a back garden with seating, which probably gets some nice sun in the early part of the day.

We took our drinks across the street to the park along the canal, and I ran into Dog Tag to get us a munchie. The ginger-pear tart was delicious and substantial enough I didn’t mind sharing with Rudi. My masala chai was, however, the spiciest drink I have ever had; I’m pretty sure there’s now hair on my chest. (Ew!) While this makes a nice change from the overly bland chais I often encounter in D.C., it would have been inedible without a snack and water to clear the palate.

Grace Street has hardly any space for bike parking, which is really its only drawback, and its sidewalks are very narrow. Rudi and I ended up finding an alcove and locking our bikes together. If you end up going, I’d suggest bringing a cable lock, rather than a U lock. (Or, even better, there’s a Bikeshare station at the end of the block…)

The knitting is a hat I hadn’t picked up since fall, with a complicated pattern, a misplaced stitch marker, and no notes on a pattern stored on my phone. The book is the second part of the Vivian Apple series of apocalyptic, feminist YA fiction. (more…)

coffeeneuring #5

Coffeeneuring #5: Grassroots Gourmet (104 Rhode Island Ave., N.W., Bloomingdale)

Saturday, Nov. 5; 5.2 miles
Hot chocolate and mini bourbon chocolate pecan pie

I eschewed the sunshine of Big Bear’s west-facing patio for the shady sidewalk of Grassroots Gourmet, a new-to-me bakery just up the street.

At this point, I don’t think I’d say Bloomingdale is a transition neighborhood anymore, but it’s definitely more of a economic mix than my corner of the city. And I think Grassroots Gourmet reflects that, selling their baked goods at local market price, but their drinks for significantly less than you’ll get them elsewhere.

To be honest, I wasn’t blown away by either my drink — my cocoa was perfectly adequate, but nothing to write home about — or my mini pie, where the crust seemed to overwhelm the three-bite snack. (I totally recognize that a thinner crust would probably have created a dessert that wasn’t sturdy enough to handle, so this was probably just my being overly picky.) However, both staff members I met were super friendly and clearly went out of their way to know their local neighbors, and that would be enough to bring me back earlier in the day when I could catch some sun from their sidewalk seating and try one of their other baked goods (they also sell cupcakes, muffins, normal-sized cookies, and bars and quick breads, as well as being a retailer for local bread) with a cup of tea. As it was, they let me hang out outside there with my knitting (my Christmas fingerless mitts) and my book (Not Your Sidekick, from my Ninja Swap package) even after they closed up, even specifically telling me that if anyone hassled me about it to let them know.

There are several bike racks out front that they share with the bar/restaurant next door, that I’d imagine would be very busy during brunch hours.

The ride was fine, except for two things on the way back from the cafe: first, the light at R and Florida did not trigger for my bike, causing me to have to wait an extra cycle until a car triggered it), and second, at one point a flatbed truck moved partially into my bike lane to get around a car, causing me to shift too close to a piece of heavy equipment covered in orange mesh netting in the curb lane. My handlebar snagged in the holes of the mesh and I came up very short, but stayed upright (the light was red and I was going slowly; if it had happened at speed, I would have gone down). I may have gesticulated and yelled vigorously at the truck driver about rights of way before pedaling the adrenaline off the rest of the way home.

coffeeneuring and yarning along

I thought I’d share some recent bike rides, part of the annual Coffeeneuring Challenge, along with the reading and knitting (none of which is complete to date) I was doing for each one as today’s Yarning Along post:

Coffeeneuring #1: Baked and Wired (1052 Thomas Jefferson St., N.W., Georgetown)

Saturday, Oct. 15; 3 miles
Chaider and ginger pumpkin bread
Baked and Wired used to be a great under-the-radar place, with Georgetown Cupcake scooping up the crowds. Alas, that hasn’t been the case for more than a year, with long lines to be found outside most of the day. However, locals know you can usually sneak inside to the right of the door and order drinks and quick bread at the coffee counter, rather than waiting in line. This visit, though, was slow-moving even in the drinks line. I left my bike locked to a street sign (Georgetown is notoriously bad for bike parking) while inside, and then rode down to the Georgetown Waterfront Park to sit in the waning daylight.

That day, I had my Andrea’s Shawl with me. I’d meant to alter the shape of the shawl, but forgot to when I started the stripes. I’ve seen some reports that the weird shape blocks out, so I’m hopeful it’ll still turn out okay. I should really just finish that up this coming weekend. At the time, I was reading Fannie Flagg’s The All-Girl Filling Station’s Last Reunion. I enjoyed it, as I do all her books, but found it less uproarious than her novels usually are.

On the ride home, I enjoyed the rising Super Moon in all its massive glory. (It was not actually this dark, but I had to dim the ambient street light to get any contrast on the moon.)

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Coffeeneuring #2: Teaism (2009 R St., N.W., Dupont Circle)

Sunday, Sunday, Oct. 16; 13 miles
Chai and a pecan-chocolate chip salty oat cookie

So, this wasn’t supposed to be where I went. I played volleyball at Malcolm X Park, biked home, then over to Capitol Hill, where I dropped off some cider with Sarah, before heading to the Hill Center at the Old Naval Hospital. I was there to see a Katharine Hepburn-Spencer Tracy film I’d theretofore never seen, Keeper of the Flame. However, I was supposed to arrive with enough time to pick up a drink and beignets at the adjacent Bayou Bakery. Alas, I arrived a few minutes late, and they close at 4, so I watched the film and then planned to stop someplace on the Hill on my way back. But I was tired (that’s a long ride for me) and I just wanted to get home, so I biked back to Dupont and then stopped at Teaism, which is a block from my house. This is another spot where there’s inadequate bike parking, so I tethered to a sign and then watched as a van nearly backed into the bike (which was wholly, but just, on the sidewalk) while I was sitting outside.

It’s a little dark, but you can see I was just starting the second sock of the vanilla pair currently in my purse. I’m still reading Kathering Zoepf’s Excellent Daughters: The Secret Lives of Young Women Who Are Transforming the Arab World, but only have a couple chapters to finish up, which is good, since it’s overdue to the library.

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Coffeeneuring #3: The Coffee Bar (1201 S St., N.W., Shaw)

Saturday, Oct. 22; 2.6 miles
London Fog and Peach raspberry muffin

I spent the afternoon cleaning and really needed to spend an hour outside, so biked over to The Coffee Bar for their last hour of operation for the day. They have their own bike racks, which had empty sides to them, and empty tables at the patio, which made me happy.

I decided to finally get around to reading Magic in Manhattan, by Sarah Mlynowski, in time for Halloween. That’s the first two books, Bras and Broomsticks and Frogs and French Kisses, of that witchy YA series packaged together. I’m not loving it so far, but I’m hopeful it’ll pick up. I’ve started a pair of stripy pink and purple socks for me & love how the yarn coordinates with the book’s cover.

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Coffeeneuring #4: Bourbon Coffee (621 Pennsylvania Ave., S.E., Capitol Hill)

Sunday, Oct. 23; 12 miles
Maple cocoa and a chocolate chip cookie

Another volleyball practice, followed by a trip to Capitol Hill once more, but this time in pursuit of a book for my Ninja Book Swap. Again, I just missed Bayou Bakery, but I knew I’d find something else in this neck of the woods. I wandered through Eastern Market and visited Labyrinth Games’ expansion and East City Bookshop, before settling down on Bourbon’s back patio.

That’s the second of this year’s Sock Madness socks and Meg Cabot’s Size 12 and Ready to Rock, the fourth book in her adult mystery series. (I hadn’t realized it was the fourth book until I finished last night and kept being surprised as I was reading when they referenced previous murders.)

When the coffeehouse was ready to close, I biked back across town, watered the garden, and headed home for the night.

contagious, bullpen, and fresh

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. I leave work with just enough time to get to the stop to catch the bus home only to find that the road has been blocked off and they’re not letting anyone through. While the bus was also going to be on the wrong side of this roadblock, usually this would be cause for grumbling about a delay in getting home. But there are people in from out of town who are really excited about the fact that the Presidential motorcade is about to pass by, and their enthusiasm is catching. You get used to it when you live here, and you tend to focus only on the inconvenience to your daily life, but it is actually kind of cool that the leader of the nation is driving right past you.

2. Rudi’s bicycle club gets tickets to the baseball game and they invite me along. Since it’s a Mets game and I’m in between volleyball seasons, I say yes. I’m glad I do when I discover that the seats are in left field, about six rows above the visiting team’s dugout. I sit and chat with Rudi’s friends for a while, but late in the game I move forward to follow what’s going on with the relief staff. That’s Fernando Salas, above, who came in to get the first two outs in the tenth. And this is Jerry Blevins heading into the game to face down his former teammate and Nationals powerhouse Daniel Murphy for the third and final out, saving the day for the Mets fans.

3. Rudi made a batch of pesto tonight with fresh basil from the farmers market. We’ll freeze most of it for the winter, but tonight we had very tasty pasta for supper.

How about you? What’s been beautiful in your world lately?

coffeeneuring 2015

2015 marks my third year of completing MG’s fall Coffeeneuring challenge, in which one rides a bike to places that serve hot beverages. (I suppose technically it might also be considered a challenge in which one drinks hot beverages while out on a bike ride, but let’s be honest: that’s not the kind of riding I do.

Ride #1
October 3
A Baked Joint, Washington, D.C.

Comestibles: Chaider (a combination of hot cider and a hot chai tea latte) and sourdough toast with Nutella and sea salt. Both were delicious and warm and exactly what was needed to help dry me out.
Distance: 6.1 miles
The Ride: This was a stormy Saturday, and we thought that the weather had abated when we headed out, leaving without rain gear and without a concrete understanding of what cross street we needed. After meandering through several neighborhoods in a drizzle, trying to find a way down to K Street, eventually we got there. The cafe, sister to crowd (literally these days) favorite Baked & Wired, has an open kitchen, an urban design, and outdoor seating for days when it’s not damp. We rode home via three grocery stores in hopes of finding a key ingredient for a recipe.
Bike Friendliness: How do a cafe and an adjacent bike shop not have bike racks of some kind nearby? The only place to lock your bike would be to the ankle-high tree boxes. Fail! (more…)

coffeeneuring 2014

Having taken part in two of Mary’s events now, I was excited to see the Coffeeneuring challenge roll back around. I set off at the first chance I could:

RIDE #1
Location: Compass Coffee, 1535 7th St. N.W., DC

Date: Oct. 4
Drink: Hot chocolate
Distance Ridden: 2.57 miles
Bike Friendliness: I admit that because I took bikeshare over, I neglected to pay attention to whether or not there was anyplace to lock a bike up. The Cabi station is just up the street, though, and the library definitely has bike stands.

Thoughts: I’d followed the stories on Compass at the Post prior to their launch, so I was excited to make this my first stop on the first day. Since I don’t drink coffee, I debated among the non-java options and settled on a cup of cocoa. It was disappointingly weak, but the chocolate chip cookie I had to accompany it was delicious, and I enjoyed hanging out at the window-side bar seating with my knitting. Since they’d only recently opened, I’d probably give them another shot with a cup of cocoa, but I’d also go back for a cup of tea.

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RIDE #2
Location: Ava Marie Chocolates, Peterborough, NH

Date: Oct. 15 (vacation rule)
Drink: Hot chocolate
Distance Ridden: 6.3 miles
Bike Friendliness: No racks. We locked our bikes together when we went inside.

Thoughts: So I accidentally missed the turn for the bike-friendly way up the river when Rudi and I left downtown Peterborough, where we left the car, and put us on heavily trafficked state road. Thankfully, it had a broad shoulder and we were able to traverse it safely until we could turn around and head back down river along the bike trail beneath golden trees in the peak of their autumn color. The farmers market we’d visited last year had moved, so we tracked it to its new location, but while there were coffee beans for sale, there weren’t any warm drinks. I ate a half pint of raspberries, we bought some more portable odds and ends, and Rudi procured a quart of coffee beans for his portion of the Coffeeneuring stop.

We then pedaled over the hill to Ava’s where we’d stopped last year. The cocoa was tasty, as you’d expect from a chocolatier, but to call my cup hot chocolate would be generous, since somehow the girl at the counter had failed to warm the drinks more than above tepid. But once there’s whipped cream and fancy chocolate decorations on top, there’s not much that you can do without starting over, and it’s not like it was bad — just not warm.

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RIDE #3
Location: Amy’s Bakery Arts Café, 113 Main St., Brattleboro, VT

Date: Oct. 17 (vacation rule)
Drink: Hot spiced apple cider
Distance Ridden: 7 miles
Bike Friendliness: No bike racks (or maybe there was one, but it was occupied?), but we both locked to parking meters without incident.

Thoughts: I cannot tell you why I was in such a grumpy mood on a gloriously sunny fall day after spending a night in a hotel in Vermont (the heavy rain and a leaky tent on the previous day had made us pack up a day earlier than expected), but I was. We parked in a commuter lot and pedaled across the Connecticut River to New Hampshire, but the trail along the hill seemed (unsurprisingly — it was a hill!) to travel up-up-up and I did not feel equipped for it.

So, we turned around, rode back to Brattleboro, and stopped at Amy’s for lunch. Their hot cider is excellent — piping hot and well spiced. I added a bowl of soup and then returned to the line for some bread and cheese when I was still hungry. In a much better mood after the midday meal, I led the way up one side of the West River and then back down and up its other side. We needed to move the car, so we had to turn around after only a bit more riding, so we couldn’t go as far as either of us would have liked, but it was a positive end to a less-than-stellar start.

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RIDE #4
Location: Hot Chocolate Sparrow, Orleans, MA

Date: Oct. 18
Drink: Tea on the way out, cocoa on the way back
Distance Ridden: 18.14
Bike Friendliness: Across the street from the rail trail. Next to a parking lot. Two sets of racks. Tons of cyclists.

Thoughts: You can only count a stop once and only one stop a day, so Rudi and I stopped here twice for good measure!

While hunting around for a place to eat dinner the night before, we came upon this coffeehouse, right along the Cape Cod Rail Trail, and I immediately made plans to stop there the next day. Rudi started out first and headed west along the trail, with the plan he’d meet up with me later. I stayed at the campground for a while, reading, before deciding if I was ever going to get to the beach, I’d better get moving.

Hot Chocolate Sparrow is only a few miles away, but by the time I got there, I was exhausted already and sent Rudi a pitiful text message over my tea and pumpkin bread saying how discouraged I was so early in the ride. Unbeknownst to me, he was already back at the campsite by then, so he quickly joined me, and after he downed a drink, we motored on to the shore.

It was a nice ride, nearly all of it along the rail trail. We saw seals at the beach, skipped rocks, and breathed in the salt air for an hour or so before turning back toward Brewster. Although it meant we finished our ride in the dark (we did have lights), we stopped at the coffeehouse on the way back to use the bathroom and to build up a bit of strength. This time I opted for cocoa and blueberry pie. Yum! We added a bit of charge to our phones and then pedaled carefully along the trail in the dark.

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RIDE #5
Location: The Coffee Bar, 1201 S St., N.W., DC

Date: Oct. 25
Drink: A cup of tea.
Distance Ridden: 2.27 miles
Bike Friendliness: Bike racks outside.

Thoughts: This was my funniest stop of Coffeeneuring. The Coffee Bar is a popular stop for D.C. cyclists and when I came back out to the patio with my cup of tea and biscotti, the only open table was next to someone I knew knew Rudi, Brook and his friend. I’d met them once before (also at The Coffee Bar), but suspected they might not remember me. I’m not much for pushing myself onto people (although the fact I struck up a conversation with the woman on the other side of me about the book she was reading might belie that), so I opted to say nothing, but it was impossible not to overhear some of their conversation, particularly as it took the form of (mostly benign) gossip about lots of other cyclists. “Wouldn’t it be funny if they started talking about Rudi,” I thought to myself. Not five minutes later, they did! (I wasn’t sure if they thought maybe they recognized me and they were testing me, but they conversed about a lot of other people, too.) Mary’s husband, Ed, made a surprise appearance later, too. (I wouldn’t have been able to identify him if Brook hadn’t shared with his friend.)

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RIDE #6
Location: Capital Teas, 8th St., S.E., DC

Date: Oct. 26
Drink: Assam tea
Distance Ridden: 10.2 miles
Bike Friendliness: Lots of racks along Barracks Row (and a Cabi station a block away)

Thoughts: We made the cardinal mistake this Sunday afternoon of planning a Coffeeneuring adventure without checking the closing time of our destination, which was District Doughnut. When we arrived on Barracks Row at quarter past three, their sign was turned to “closed,” but when they saw our disappointed faces, the workers opened back up. We were not the only customers to come in to buy sweet goods, but their beverage service was already turned off, so we, joined by our on-foot friend, Sarah, headed up the street to Capital Teas for drinks. We took them down to a pocket park to enjoy a pleasant afternoon.

After Sarah headed home, Rudi and I pedaled back toward Dupont Circle, making an impromptu stop at the Botanical Garden for some more sun. We also saw these sheets with murals made by child refugees in the Middle East along the sections of the Mall closed for renovation.

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RIDE #7
Location: Qualia Coffee, 3917 Georgia Ave., N.W., DC

Date: Nov. 2
Drink: Lapsang Souchong tea
Distance Ridden: 5.97 miles
Bike Friendliness: Racks on the sidewalk. Cabi a few blocks away.

Thoughts: Upshur Street Books opened Nov. 1 and I was eager to check it out. Just a few blocks up from Qualia in Petworth, I found the bookstore darling and well-curated and early reports suggest it’s been well-received. I joined their membership program, so I’ll be back, probably for a little Christmas shopping.

After buying a book, I headed to Qualia for a cup of strong tea and some shortbread cookies. I was already partway through another book, so I read that while drinking my tea, soaking in the final sun of the day, and admiring the coffeehouse cat through the window.

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RIDE #8
Location: Taqueria Nacional, 1409 T St., N.W., DC

Date: Nov. 9
Drink: Mexican hot chocolate
Distance Ridden: 5.58 miles
Bike Friendliness: Bike racks on the sidewalk. Several Cabi stations within a couple blocks.

Thoughts: I started out with some time in the garden before heading to Georgetown. I’d intended to hit Baked and Wired, but it would seem that everyone else in the world has now come to realize theirs are the best cupcakes in the city, and while I am happy to wait in line for a couple minutes for a treat that’s expensive and bad for me, I refuse to wait half an hour when other options exist. Since it was late afternoon, I decided to head down to the river and hang out at the park for a while, before swinging back up past the bakery to see if the line had dissipated. It had not. My next thought was to stop at Stachowski Market and get a piece of pie, but while they had pie, they did not have hot beverages, so I passed there, as well. By this point, I figured Rudi was home from his ride and I invited him to head east with me for a drink before dinner.

We waffled for a bit about where to go, before deciding on the Bakehouse (for a maple latte for Rudi). When we arrived, I asked him if he needed to pre-game his drink with a taco from next door and he thought this a marvelous idea. When we got inside, we discovered they’d added Mexican hot chocolate to their cold-weather menu, and we added that to our order of a taco and yuca fries. We ate outside by the fireplace (a fountain in the summer) and really enjoyed the hot chocolate. It was sweeter than most Mexican hot chocolates I’ve had, which tend to veer bitter, and they’d added some mini marshmallows, which, thanks to the rapidly cooling temperatures, did not melt and were fun to suck out of the lid.

And, yes, after we were done, we headed next door as planned. I had a bowl of chai and Rudi got his latte and said hello to some other cyclists he knew who were there. We read the comics and split a cookie and then headed home for dinner.

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RIDE #9
Location: Big Bear Cafe, 1700 1st St., N.W., DC

Date: Nov. 15
Drink: A pot of black tea. (I can’t remember the specific type, but it was their basic, unflavored black.)
Distance Ridden: 5.85 miles
Bike Friendliness: Several racks. Cabi nearby.

Thoughts: I spent longer at the garden than I’d intended, so my trip to Big Bear was later than expected, putting me there just before Happy Hour and shortly before sunset. I took their last piece of zucchini cake (yum!) and my pot of tea and headed outside to soak up the last few rays of sun. Their outdoor space is lovely — some of the best in D.C., I’d say — and I made use of it for eating, knitting, and drinking until I was out of tea, light, and feeling in my fingers. They tried to light one of their heat lamps for me, but it must have been out of fuel, so I took that as a sign it was time to roll home and close the book on Coffeeneuring 2014.

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Total Coffeeneuring miles: 63.88 miles

Many thanks to Mary and all the other Coffeeneurs for such a fun event!