Old City Coffee is the freakin bees’ knees. I had coffee from their shop in Old[e] City when I was in Philly this past August for a week-long training on how to be a good VISTA. I remember delicious coffee, a cute logo and fantastic cookies. Unfortunately, due to limited seating and my desire to get out of my hotel each morning for breakfast, I didn’t really get to eat breakfast and/or chill there in August. I won’t say which chain coffee place I did eat breakfast at more regularly during that trip. But they did have ample seating, even on the sidewalk.
This weekend, we hit the Reading Terminal Market (at the recommendation of the dude who makes the best bike shirts ever) and scored coffee from the cart. It was delicious and definitely what Mr. Brainpan ordered after waking up at 2:30 am. We got to relax at a tiny table and enjoy the coffee, saving a sugar packet with the logo for gluing into our travel journal. The line increased soon, as we got there at the opening on the market. The larger Old City Coffee stall had an enormous line that stretched a good two dozen deep by the time we left the market. They must have a good following.
There were tons of Starbucks joints and Dunkin Donuts palaces. For being as tired as we were, we didn’t really drink that much coffee on our trip. Which probably explains — at least in part — how I dozed off on the short train ride back to Baltimore long enough and deeply enough that Mrs. P had the time to be tempted to take a picture of me passed out on Amtrak, to pull out her camera, to take the picture and to put it away, repressing what I assume was massive giggling. But, the joke’s on her. The picture came out blurrily. (Maybe she should have had more coffee.)
[Photo Friday: Morning Routine.]