Summer all food, fun and drink marathon begins · Friday June 27, 2008 by colin newell
Beginning, well, now we will start the all summer, all food, coffee and fun marathon of blog posts.
I am so done with Olympic rants. I am so done with gas price rants. I am so done with political stuff.
Folks. I just don’t care anymore. I just want to have fun and enjoy life.
For at least 2 months.
So buckle up.
Let’s begin our 60 days of reckless and irresponsible abandon with this little tid-bit: The self-stirring mug. What could be more hedonistic than a mug that stirs itself. Yes, friend – it is true.
There was a time that coffee brewers seemed radical. Now we have devices for stirring. Soon, very soon, we will have surrogates that drink the coffee for us, waving their arms and smoking cigarettes as they become increasingly agitated.
Not for me though. I would rather do my own arm waving.
Welcome to the Summer of 2008.
Victoria B.C. Canada - Saturday around town · Saturday June 21, 2008 by colin newell
A Saturday walk downtown. If it is a 2.5 km walk from our perch in Rockland (a chi-chi neighborhood up the hill from downtown Victoria…) I would be surprised. But since it is largely downhill, it is a breeze.
This stroll takes us down Fort Street right down Antique Row past bustling cafes, lunch spots into the heart of the city.
Today we walked directly to Paradiso de Stelle… paradise of stars… a neat Italian gelato-cafe that features a wonderful selection of panini, illy coffee, liquor and Café Correcto… oh yea and lots of fresh Gelato produced on site. Paradiso de Stelle is below Bastion Square in Victoria and it wins points on the quality of its food and drink, the professionalism and beauty of its staff (yea, I get warnings from my editor about using words like beauty) and the great people watching.
From there it is off to Habit Coffee and Culture on Pandora Avenue – the 600 block just below Government Street (Photo above). Habit Coffee and Culture is ground zero for the 3rd wave coffee scene makers in Victoria. Their espresso based beverages are always spot on – and the vibe is not unlike many of Portland and Seattle’s grooviest coffee joints like Stumptown.
If you live in Victoria B.C. Canada and think you know great coffee – unless you have been to Discovery, Cafe Fantastico and Habit… all in the same day… oh yea, and Buon Amici’s over on Tyee road on the West side… you have not experienced what truly great coffee is.
So put down that Folgers, get on your bike or put your runners on – and get going!
Quattro Stagione Cafe 7060 West Saanich Rd review · Sunday June 15, 2008 by colin newell
Quattro Stagione – I have no idea what it means.
Quattro Stagione is a restaurant on West Saanich road on the Saanich peninsula.
From the outside it appears to be a bit of a dive or visually unstructured. I mean, there is nothing to indicate here that there is anything outstanding or unusual on the menu. Patience yields a surprise however.
World famous coffee-tamper artisan (and vegetarian) Reg Barber swears by the joint. His shop is in Brentwood (no, the Keating industrial park actually…) and he lunches here.
So while picking up some stuff from Reg Barber, my wife and I popped in for a late lunch (3 hours before having a fabulous dinner at the Heron Rock Bistro – my next review)
Ok. The food here is really good. It is of a middle-eastern bent; falafel, pita’s, wraps, intriguing sandwiches and very original and healthful salads.
Which were very tastefully and artistically served.
The only minor downside at this late hour in the afternoon, 1/2 hour before closing:
Was the owners kids – a 7 year old boy and 11 year old girl kept buzzing in and out of the cafe… endlessly.
We were sitting out at a sidewalk table and the 7 year old boy spent 3 or 4 minutes running around us, hiding behind me giggling and mugging… at some point asking me if I wanted to hear a song with rude lyrics…
I think my bored and slightly irritated expression drove him away… or his boredom took over.
The 11 year old daughter roller-bladed non-stop… into the cafe, out of the cafe, into the cafe, out of the cafe… I am not sure… food safe violation ? No? Yes?
Overall verdict: Really great creative food. But come mid-day before schools out!
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Victoria private Steele episode #1 · Sunday April 27, 2008 by colin newell
It was a regular Friday in the offices of Robert Steele when the phone rang. I grabbed the handset out of the cradle, a telephone cradle… big, black and plastic like the color and texture of my heart.
Cold and shapeless – that is me. It is the job I do. I am… a private detective with the firm Steele-Wall. Down on Main Street in sunny Victoria.
I’d genuinely like to believe I have a partner named Wall – but I don’t. What I do have is, the promise of what you run into when you cross me…
And judging by the sound of the dame on the other end of the blower, I knew I had a hot one on. She spat her words out like a pro-wrestler on a Saturday afternoon, which was odd. It was Friday. Friday, high noon.
It seems one of her favorite cafe’s had just dumped their quality beans for some johnny-come-lately discount brew and, don’t tell me let me guess, the drinks are the same price.
Yea, this was a clear case of brew and gouge. I hate it when that happens. I hate it when the phone rings and there is a angry babe on the other end of the chatter-box. I hate stomach aches and this scene meant I was going to be cooking up a winner.
After she stopped ranting I managed to squeeze a few words in edgewise..
“So let’s take it from the top shall we?” I coached.
Beau, we will call her Ms B, works as the executive legal assistant with the District attorneys office and B’s no slouch. She knows a bad fish when she smells one so she knew who to call.. I had a good feeling about her as I casually glanced at my incessantly and largely unstoppable work load.
B: “Ah, Mister Steele, is this you?”
“Ma’am”, I mumbled between gritted teeth… “It sure is. What seems to be your beef, Baby?”
B: “I was down at the Matrix today, you know the cafe down on 4th and Spring?”
“Yes, Ma’am… the one between Jimmy’s Pawn and Leo’s Bar n Grill?”
B: “Yea, that’s the one… I go there, like, every day without fail and…”
“Stick to the facts Beau.. just the facts..”
B: “well, you know how it is. They get you all jazzed up on supreme bean, all tasty and perfect, and…”
“Please continue…” I encouraged.
B: “Well, I was in for my usual double-americano and… well and… well and….”
Just then Beau broke down into a paroxysm of frustrated sobs. I could almost picture her white shoulders quivering under her delicate cotton brocade. I was touched and at the same time fascinated.
“Baby. Get a grip of yourself… Shake it off honey..”
By now I was furious. I snubbed out a virtual Marlboro into an imaginary ash-tray next to my Olivetti.
“Here’s the way it is sister. There are two kinds of people out there – The good people: that’s you and the men and women in your office that you know and trust.
And then there are the coffee people: the bad people, looking for every opportunity to screw with the general public. That is where I come in.
When my phone rings, it is like the sound of a crying baby. And lately, I have been getting a crib full.”
My job never ends. Coffee cop and private detective. It is a thankless one and the pay is crap. But sometimes on a sunny day, when the wind is blowing in the right direction and things are going my way, I can sit in the corner cafe and everything is okay. The brew is hot and the chicks are cool.
Cool, until the phone rings…
B: “Mr. Steele, ah… Mr. Steele….?”
I snapped out of my narcissistic reverie long enough to realize that I was still on the phone…
B: “Their americanos were just so perfect.. crema like butterscotch churned by angels.. and now.. and now..
“Go on, Miss B.. and don’t let me interrupt…”
B: “Their coffee is like a double-double Tim Horton’s that has been forgotten in the back-seat of a ’56 chev, left overnight in the strip mall and allowed to bake in the heat of the day…”
“Baby, I get your vibe, and it pains me to know that every day in this sleepy little town, there is yet one more coffee crime going down…Now you relax and don’t sweat that pretty little face of yours and let Mr. Steele look after things from here on in…”
As she hung up the phone and I tapped another pretend Marlboro out of my near-empty deck of phantom smokes, I realized one thing -
Damn, I need a coffee!
Detective Robert Steele is the sole proprietor of Steele-Wall a private investigation firm keeping a handle on caffeinated crimes and general mischief in the sleepy little town of Victoria.
Colin Newell, author of the coffeecrew blog once helped write an episode of C.S.I. Las Vegas (Season 3 – Episode Last Laugh) – since then, pretty much everything has gone to his head.
