Two Coffee Feens Tour Around Town

Per dictionary.com, feen is defined as: to desire greatly. And make no mistakes about it...everyday I desire my kick of caffeine immensely. Remember that time I decided to visit more local coffee shops instead of relying soley on Starbucks for my fix?! Well my hand was forced last month, but I will let Drea explain...

If you know Holly or I, then you know there's one thing we both love: Starbucks coffee! So imagine our dismay when one of our top spot was plastered all over the news for racial profiling of two black men. To make matters worse, the incident occurred right in our own backyards in Center City Philadelphia. Starbucks' white chocolate mocha is great and all -- dreamy even -- but another thing to be said about both Holly and I is we don't do well with injustices.

Admittedly I was probably a little more heated than Holly in this particular case. Earlier this year, I read Shirley Chisholm's book Unbought & Unbossed casuing me to toe the line of becoming downright militant since the start of 2018 (we'll save those details for another blog post perhaps). So without question, I was NOT going to be patronizing Starbucks any time soon. I was officially on strike.

Personally, this call to arms presented a real problem for me and I'm not just referring to the knee-buckling sensation (H: sometimes I exclaim YES as I am driving from that FIRST sip) from taking my daily first sip of white mocha that I was now depriving myself from. No, it was deeper than that. Because of the boycott, I had nowhere to settle in for work each day! Last summer I started a new job that allows me to work from home. Because of this new lifestyle, Starbucks had become a convenient space for me to set-up shop as I sit and crank out award-winning masterpieces about the latest happenings in business school education. It was perfect. Free wifi, strong drink, and the sound of espresso machines and uptempo music to get me in the flow of things.

Now I had no place to go. Or so I thought! I went to my phone and asked the Google gods to give me some Starbucks alternatives. What I found was a whole new world of coffee shops that were not only nearby, but they were marked by beautiful ambiance that made me say, "Starbucks who???". Below is a round up of me and Holly's Philly tour of coffee shops, our thoughts and reactions to each, and our top picks.

CAFE WALNUT
The first stop was Cafe Walnut. Being that this was my first stop, I initially thought I'd hit the jackpot. I stumbled on this hidden gem as I looked for a place to sit and work following a work lunch in the Old City area. Immediately, I loved the charm of Cafe Walnut. I went down into a cellar-type space to place my order and make my purchase; then climbed the stairs to find an open space filled with tables, chairs, work benches, and high top seating. My favorite part was the openness and the variety of seating. There were tables and chairs for group meetings or single high top chairs facing the hustle and bustle of Walnut Street if you just wanted to zone in on your work, but with a good view. The location was serene and good for productivity, but the coffee left much to be desired. Even with an extra pump of flavoring, my caramel flavored latte didn't have much of a caramel taste to it at all. That's annoying since you can probably imagine, I'm a bit of a coffee snob (note: I get that trait from Holly).

Pros: Charming, cute, good view
Cons: Coffee was blah, parking is a hassle

THE DAILY GRIND
Next up was The Daily Grind in Jenkintown. I ended up here after a doctor appointment in the area and once again needing a place to sit down and work. I initially liked Daily Grind, but eventually the excitement of it wore iff. First of all, I don't like that it's inside a mini mall. Something about sitting inside of a mall takes away the coffee shop feel. The coffee was much better than Walnut Street Cafe, but again, the (coffee) snob in me was not impressed. The other thing to note about The Daily Grind is noise level. Because it's inside of a mall space, the lunch hour gets pretty hectic and pretty loud. Thank goodness I don't go anywhere without my headphones. On the flip side, the food at The Daily Grind was alright and the staff was super friendly. Say hi to Brendan for me if you go!
Pros: Parking lot, friendly customer service
Cons: Bad coffee, uncomfortable seating

ONE SHOT CAFE
Here's where things start to get fun. One Shot Cafe in Northern Libs made me squeal with excitement as soon as I entered. Cute coffee shop at its best and an A+ for ambiance for sure. The best part is when you climb the stairs to the second floor. Your eyes are met with a living-room like space filled with big comfy sofas and shelves on top of shelves of endless books. If you'd rather sit at a space that's less sleep-inducing, there are various seating options including a cute little window-seat nook with pillows and a view of the street below. There's also a random motorcyle parked on this floor just because. And I dig that.

H: I NEED to get down here

The noise level in One Shot is perfect for getting work done and, in fact, may be a little too quiet. I overheard someone mention, "It's like a library up here." My first time ordering food at One Shot was fairly disappointing as both my breakfast sadwich and coffee were lukewarm with a somewhat bland taste. But they made up for it the next few times. Their smoked salmon is tasty and I nearly hurt myself on their breakfast burrito. With that said though, One Shot Cafe is a bit pricey. The breakfast burrito and cofee were about $20 bucks. Not ideal for someone just looking to scarf down some food while she works.

Pros: Ambiance, food, noise level
Cons: Not so great coffee, pricey

PALMERA COFFEE 
As I was headed to One Shot Cafe one day, I was cruising down Girard Ave when Palmera Coffee caught my eye. From the street, you could see that it had terrific window seating and I could even tell that the inside seating and ambiance would be adorable. I had no idea just how adorable. I walked in and instantly thought Palmera would be crowned my favorite of the coffee shop tour. The space is beautiful! I don't think words can do it justice so I took a gazillion or so pics to share. Immediately, I shot Holly a text and told her she had to visit this one with me. Her next work from home day happened to be the next day so we made the trip and "worked" there all day on a Friday.

H: In the midst of a social media hack for one of my client accounts, this was a great idea - although my stress levels were high, a change of location gave me the motivation I needed to buckle down and just KEEP troubleshooting after a long night working.

Though Palmera gets the top grade for ambiance, there are a few cons. First, I'm not sure what it is, but for some reason the food here always leaves me feeling sick. I've tried a breakfast and a lunch option and both times were not good for me. A second downside here is two-hour parking. While there are ample spaces, the parking authority folks are out and so having to go move your car every two hours gets old. Finally, the seating. As much as Palmera gives me the heart eye emoji face, there are no cushions on any of the seats and all of the seats are HARD. By the time I worked all day pulling together an article, my little tail was in much pain.


Holly's Cons: Parking, you have to spend $5 to use your debit card

FEINE
H: Feine is located in Conshy. As I walked in one Sunday after brunch, I immediately fell in love with the decor and the lattes were delicious.

Honey Lavender & Lucky Charm Lattes

Pros: Outdoor seating, ample parking availaible, decor, customer service, books available to read, board games on a shelf