Cappuccino from Illy Cafe at the Renaissance Dupont.
Everyone has their secret spots, places that they only know about.
For me, it’s Illy Cafe at the Renaissance Dupont at 22nd and M St NW. It’s a hipster-free zone, without a beard or skinny jean to be seen. There’s also no wifi, so you don’t get laptop campers or deluded grad students.
A beautiful cappuccino is only $3.08 – probably the cheapest in the city.
And not only was it delicious, it was artistically perfect, as you can see from the photo above. The work of a good barista is indistinguishable from magic.
Peregrine gets a bad rap for being a hipster haven, of being home to skinny jeans, ironic facial hair and hipper-than-thou attitudes. But it’s not the staff that’s the problem, I realized as I looked for a place to sit. It’s the patrons.
I had to perch on a stool in a corner because the tables were occupied by grad students with laptops. While I’ve done my share of work in coffee shops, I would never choose a busy store like Peregrine. And I certainly wouldn’t occupy multiple chairs with my textbooks, knitware and electronic devices.
Nobody cares about your grad school dissertation – that is what I felt like shouting. Ten years from now, you will not even remember what that paper was about. And your thesis advisor, the only other person to have ever read it, won’t remember either.
Grad school won’t get you a better job. I’d be more impressed by someone who managed a Wendy’s than someone with an MA. The Wendy’s manager had to get people to show up and work every single day – that’s really hard, and much more impressive accomplishment than going to classes.
Besides, all those old rules and gatekeepers are coming down. Our most successful companies, like Facebook and Apple, were founded by college dropouts. There is no reason to genuflect before some academy before you can do what you want. You can do so now.
Avoid the trap of grad school. Instead, take advantage of the opportunities that cheap tech and the internet have brought us. Want to be a director? Go shoot a movie with your iPhone. Aspire to run a company? Use Kickstarter to raise the money. Want to change the world? Use Meetup to start organizing people.
If for no other reason, avoid grad school so you can enjoy Sunday afternoons outside. Ten years from now, you’ll remember sunny fall days like today – not the time you wasted hunched in front of a computer.
“The journey is its own reward” should be the slogan of the Coffeeneuring Challenge. It’s not the coffee you drink, but how you get there.
That was my consolation after drinking this.
A bowl of hot milk – enjoy!
It was supposed to be a cappuccino, from Quartermaine’s in Bethesda. It was more like hot milk in a bowl with a dollop of espresso. I’d been so spoiled on my previous coffeeneuring adventures to Dolcezza and Buzz Bakery that this mediocre concoction was a shock.
I needed to return to DC, where cappuccino was made by surly men with beards. So I gulped this down and headed back to the Capital Crescent Trail. It’s my favorite trail in the Washington area and the one I ride the most. The CCT follows an old railway line from Georgetown to Bethesda, with a gentle uphill grade most of the way. Scenic year-round, it had exploded with fall colors over the weekend.
There’s actually a speed limit on the CCT – 15 miles per hour. On the downhill run back to Georgetown, it’s easy to exceed the posted limit. DC hasn’t figured out how to post speed cameras on bike trails – yet.The MD section of the CCT is maintained by Montgomery County. It’s in better shape than the DC section, which is neglected by the National Park Service.The Dalecarlia Tunnel, where the CCT passes under MacArthur Boulevard.And then there’s great old railway bridge over the C&O Canal.The Sunday after the time change, and the shadows were long.For the last few miles into DC, the CCT runs parallel to the C&O Canal. This is at Fletcher’s Cove.The CCT begins in Georgetown, right under Key Bridge. The late afternoon light and the fall colors were absolutely perfect. Crazy how good iPhone pics can be with the right light.
Four coffeeneuring adventures completed – three to go! Will I complete all of my seven required trips by November 17? Will I have better luck in coffee? Stay tuned!
Progress in this city is as rutted and uneven as the bike lane pictured above. This is the 15th St Cycletrack. It’s supposed to be a bike lane running along the curb, protected from traffic by white, reflective bollards and a line of parked cars on the left.
The DC Department of Transportation (DDOT) is rebuilding the lane – great! But they tore it up and left it this way, with no detours or accommodations for cyclists. Without white painted lanes or bollards, drivers don’t know it’s a cycletrack. They drive and park in it while cyclists come the opposite way – a recipe for accidents.
DDOT was warned. WABA asked to help during the planning process – and was ignored. And once the construction started, cyclists tweeted at them, including me, after witnessing WABA Bike Ambassador Pete Beers nearly get killed. I asked that orange cones be put up to mark the lane. DDOT assured me that they would fix the problem. But they did nothing.
This infuriates me. I work in government. I respond to citizen concerns every day. Civil servants have a duty to fix problems. DDOT under the Fenty administration responded to and fixed problems the same day.
This DDOT project has been poorly planned, reckless and negligent. It would not have happened under Adrian Fenty. But is commonplace under Mayor Gray. Cast your vote accordingly.
The great thing about coffeneuring is that it gets you biking to new places. Coffeeneuring #1 sent me to Buzz Bakery and their delicious red velvet cupcakes. Coffeeneuring #2 was a trip to hipsterville aka Big Bear in Bloomingdale.
For my third coffeeneuring adventure, I decided to visit Union Market. This wholesale market in Northeast DC (formerly known as the Florida Avenue Market) has been reinvented as an artisanal shopping experience.
To get there, Google Maps sent me across the city via M Street. I thought the route was crazy, but I played along.
Logan Circle to Union Market, the crazy Google way.
The Google sent me down M Street through Shaw, across Mad Max-style New York Avenue and through NoMa streets torn up from construction. After going under the railroad tracks, I just followed the hipsters up to the market.
Union Market is home to more than a dozen different restaurants and retail shops, including Peregrine Coffee, Dolcezza Gelato, Co Co. Sala and TaKorean. It’s sort of “city in a box” where you can shop for all your luxury treats in one location. Continue reading “Coffeeneuring #3: Union Market”
For my second coffeeneuring adventure, I biked to Big Bear Cafe in Bloomingdale. Reminder: the idea behind coffeeneuring is to bike to seven different coffee shops by November 17.
Like most bike people, I have more than one bike. I’ve limited my addiction to just to two cycles – a Specialized Sirrus and Breezer Zig 7, a folding bike that I bought off Craigslist. Small enough to fit in the trunk of a car, I’ve taken this bike everywhere, from the cobblestoned streets of Savannah to mile-high trails in Colorado.
But I had a problem.
This could be a problem.
I can fix a flat tire. But I could not loosen the nut that held the tire to the frame, even after employing bike tools, WD-40 and even a hammer. So I took it to The Bike Rack at 14th and Q.
WABA Ambassador Pete Beers politely informs a driver that they’re driving in the bike lane.
You never know what you’ll see walking around on the streets of DC.
On October 11, I was on my way to get coffee when I happened to catch this little drama. It was a rainy and miserable morning but there were still plenty of cyclists in the 15th Street Cycletrack. More than just a bike lane, this is a strip of road reserved for cyclists, with bollards and parked cars protecting them from the madness of DC traffic. Bikers can go in both directions and the Cycletrack is packed every morning with commuters – an inspiring sight.
Except at 15th and M, where the bollards have gone missing. I ride through here all the time and was about to get a picture of the danger when this Audi pulled into the Cycletrack. Then the light changed and cyclists started coming the other way.
And it was Pete Beers! He’s a Washington Area Bicyclist Association (WABA) Ambassador, charged with educating the public on the benefits of biking. As part of his outreach duties, he was riding around DC hauling the WABA “Every Lane is a Bike Lane” trailer
Pete nearly ended up on the hood of the luxury sedan. Despite this, he was polite, informing the driver that they were driving in a bike lane. It was a very civilized exchange that ended positively.
In contrast, when a cabbie made a u-turn in the Cycletrack last week, I peppered him with obscenities. “You’re a fucking idiot!” where my words, to be precise.
Maybe I should try Pete’s more Buddhist approach. Read Pete’s side of things, and his gentle approach to driver education on his blog, I Love My Commute. He also has a great Flickr feed where he obsessively documents DC-area trails, as well as his adventures in carrying large objects on bikes.
I tweeted this photo at the DC Department of Transportation. They say they will fix the problem. I hope so – it’s literally an accident waiting to happen.
Shutdown has a silver lining – more time for coffeeneuring! What is coffeenuering? The idea is simple:
Ride your bike to 7 different local coffee shops from Saturday October 5 through Sunday, November 17.
You ride your bike to a coffee shop, take a photo and tag it with #coffeeneuring. Simple.
After some research on Yelp, I decided to visit the Buzz Bakery on Slaters Lane in Alexandria. Though it’s right off the Mount Vernon Trail, I didn’t even know it existed. That’s the beauty of coffeeneuring – it gets you to new places.
I cruised down the 15th St bike lane, went around the White House and then encountered Shutdown Theater.
Lincoln Memorial shutdown to visitors.
Shutdown Theater is when the National Park Service unnecessarily shuts down open-air parks, monuments and even bongo-playing hippies. The purpose is not to protect monuments built to last thousands of years (they’re guarding them anyway, as you can see above) but to provide visuals for TV anchors to stand in front of. It’s a political strategy.
But, on a bike I’m free of these petty functionaries, and could escape over the river to Virginia. Crossing my favorite Memorial Bridge, I cruised down the Mount Vernon Trail. This is National Park Service land too but all they’ve done is close the bathrooms. I was joined by plenty of other lawbreakers.
Biking on the Mount Vernon Trail with Capitol in background.
A pair of costumed riders pause for a moment during the Tour de Fat bike parade. We weren’t really heading for the interstate but passed underneath it on the way back to Yards Park. Shot with an iPhone, edited in Flickr mobile app using Mammoth filter.
Who wouldn’t want to parade around DC on bikes and then drink Fat Tire?
Well, maybe not cycle-hating Dorothy Rabinowitz, lest her wig get disturbed, but every other normal human loves biking and drinking beer. And we had a great Saturday to do it at the annual Tour de Fat.
