Propeller Skies

Another coffee shop, Tilt, recently opened in Ghettoberry Hood. Tilt is located at 274 Walker Street in a building previously occupied by a shady business. Said business often had folks of dubious background milling about in front of it, so the change is welcome.

Where the Coffee Loft is narrow and multi-story, Tilt is an expansive horizontal space with plenty of seating, wood floors, and exposed brick walls. While I enjoy the out of the ordinary set up at the Coffee Loft, I also dig being able to see the whole shop at once.

On my first trip to Tilt, I ordered a medium Mocha. While slightly sweeter than I prefer, the mocha was dope. On the second trip, I ordered a Machiatto with a hit of caramel. For Prizzo Skeezy readers familiar with Caramel Machiattos served up by Starbucks, Tilt’s are a whole different experience. Tilt makes their Machiattos correctly - a shot of espresso marked with frothed milk. The espresso was deliciously bitter, with the caramel at the bottom providing a nice counterpoint at the end. Tilt’s Machiattos are Smoove as hell.

In contrast to the Coffee Loft, Tilt is open in the evenings. Due to Tilt’s convenient hours and proximity to my ghetto fabulous condo, I suspect I will spend plenty of time there chillin’ like a villain. Tilt Coffee Shop is highly recommended. However, the Coffee Loft remains highly recommended and I will still patronize them when they are open.

Along with the Elliott Street Deli & Pub, The Coffee Loft*, located at 322 Peters Street, is a Ghettoberry Hood business I patronize regularly. The owner and his minions brew an excellent cup of coffee and are also super friendly. Espresso products are delicious, as are the tasty smoothies. My favorite Coffee Loft drink is the mocha.

Because the Coffee Loft is in a narrow space, the first floor is dedicated to the espresso bar, with limited seating. On Saturdays, the second floor loft is open and features comfortable couches and other chairs. While I recommend chillin’ like Bob Dylan in the loft, unfortunately, it features smooth jazz from a horrible station in Roswell. This is not an issue for me, as I always roll with my Iphone.

As per usual for coffee joints, plenty of cookies and pastries are available for sale. However, some of the tasty snacks at the Coffee Loft are vegan. While I normally consider that a bunch of tree hugging hippie bullshit, the cookies are excellent and taste perfectly normal.

A key issue for me is the Coffee Loft is open limited hours, from 7:30 in the morning through 2 in the afternoon on weekdays and Saturdays from 8 in the morning to 5 in the evening. More evening and weekend hours would be nice, as The Man keeps me down during the week. The Coffee Loft is highly recommended.

notes:

* No link provided, because they only have a retina destroying Myspace page, which makes my eyeballs bleed.

The following post is a positive review. Our regularly scheduled anger will resume tomorrow. Or whenever I feel like posting again.

Despite the goofy name, Coffee AM is awesome. I have been ordering my beans from them for over a year now and am completely satisfied. Unlike Starbucks, Coffee AM does not over roast their beans. Coffee AM’s beans are as flavorful as Aurora’s, but they can be ordered anytime from the internet and Coffee AM accepts credit cards.

A few months ago, an idependent coffee house named Octane opened down the road from me. Due to my lack of a functioning automobile, I was unable to check it right away. I finally got a chance to stop by Octane Saturday morning.

The space is a beautiful warehouse conversion, but lofts are starting to become repetetive on this side of town. A very cool feature is the well done artwork posted on the exposed brick walls.

After taking a few minutes to examine the space and menu, I stepped up to the counter to place my order. Wanting to get in touch with my feminine side, I purchased a white chocolate mocha. The espresso drink was delicious and I will certainly be back to research their other offerings. I highly recommend Octane.

Sunday afternoon, I took a walk to Starbucks® to purchase some coffee. Of course, I prefer Aurora coffee, but Starbucks® has two overwhelming advantages. [1] Because they have roughly 27 locations within a mile of my apartment, I can walk there, and [2] they accept major credit cards, thus allowing me to skip a trip to the ATM. J. Mack Robinson joined me on this trip and we took the scenic route, since he was shooting material for a photo tour of Atlantic Station.

Since I enjoyed my previous trip to Aurora Coffee so much, I decided to stop in and pick up some more coffee. This time, I decided to visit the Little Five Points location, since it has a beautiful expanse of parking lot in front of it. Unfortunately, I had forgotten about the parking nazis from hell (PNFH). Some genius came up with the world’s most irritating money making scheme. Said genius posted the PNFH at the entrance to the lot, where they collect $2 from each patron. In theory, one can present a receipt from any business served by the lot to the PNFH for a refund of the previously collected $2. However, since the lot is one way, one has to walk all the way back to the entrance to receive a refund. Which is a bigger pain than it is worth.

At this Aurora location, the counter guy was very helpful. He recommended Kenya AA beans that turned out to be fantastic. Unfortunately, he shortchanged me by $4.

A few days ago, I stopped by Aurora Coffee, which is a local chain in Atlanta with approximately zero convenient locations. I usually purchase coffee at Starbucks®, which is not as good, but has the key advantage of being located near my office. However, a friend of mine recently convinced me that Aurora is far tastier. Unfortunately, they are only open about two hours per day and do not take credit cards.

On my second trip, they actually happened to be open. I purchased a pound of Tanzanian Peaberry, which is one of my favorite coffees. I was first turned on to it in tha B-Lo, during the summer I lived on Heath Street, when a really hot chick in the neighborhood coffee shop suggested I try it.

The beans from Aurora are fantastic. It was certainly worth two trips and a trip to the ATM machine.

Almost every afternoon, I head over to Starbucks® for a tasty cup of coffee. The walk gives me a chance to clear my head and purchasing a $5 cup of coffee stimulates the economy and makes me feel like I am doing my part in the War On Terrorism™. Usually, this is one of the more pleasant parts of my workday.

However, today I was stuck in line behind Dumbass no. 1 and Dumbass no. 2. Dumbass no. 1 took twenty minutes to choose a baked good from the collection of not very tasty baked goods that Starbucks® offers. In comparison, Dumbass no. 2 took fifteen minutes to ask thirty-five stupid questions* about a particular kind of coffee and then decided to hold off and purchase some tomorrow. Thanks for wasting my time, cocksuckers.

To remedy the situation, I propose that Starbucks® open a special register, just for dumbasses. Anyone who takes more than three seconds to place an order will be forcibly relocated from the normal people line to the dumbass line.

notes:

*There are no stupid questions, only stupid people.