Peet's Coffee & Tea

Time to rev up the breakfast blog again. I was inspired by the opening of a new coffee shop in Oakland, Peet's Coffee & Tea. This takes the place of Caribou Coffee. Instead of giving grades for breakfast, I will merely free associate and vent, which gives me free rein to pontificate about my relenteless quest for the perfect breakfast. Now, more about Peet's:

Just when I thought cashiers could not be any more moronic when it comes to making change, the idiots at Peet's managed to attain a whole new level of incompetence. My coffee and muffin came to $4.05. I gave the guy $5.10. He then said, "your bill comes to only $4.05," and he gave me back my dime and 95 cents in change! He must have been a trainee because he had several other morons helping him out. I then told the assembled group of change-challenged cretins that I really just wanted a dollar and a nickel in change. I swear to God, they all looked at me like I was Albert Einstein revealing hitherto unknown secrets of the galaxy. We'll see if they do better the next time.

Anyway, the pastries looked pretty good. Unfortunately, I picked the wrong one. I chose a bran muffin which, I was told, did not contain raisins but had delicious morsels of apricot. Oh, joy! Well, the muffin sucked. It was cold and dry, and the apricot morsels were barely detectable. Next time I'll get a scone. There were 4 varieties, and they can't be any worse than the bran muffin.

Now for my other complaints. They had Equal and Splenda, but no Sweet & Low. I am very particular about my artificial sweeteners, and I don't care if Sweet & Low causes cancer in rats. It has just the right amount of sweetness and dissolves like you wouldn't believe. So just give me the pink stuff!

Also, unlike Caribou Coffee, they don't sell the Post-Gazette there and they don't have a trivia quiz. So I have no way of being intellectually stimulated there, other than enlightening the staff on how to make change. Also, they don't have enough seating.

By the way, the coffee was pretty good.

Friday, 2/4/2011

Another breakfast at Dozen this morning. I had a delicious cream danish with strawberries on top. Coffee and ambience were much better this time than the last time I was there.

Coffee: Excellent
Food: Excellent
Service: Excellent
Ambience: Excellent
Newspaper: None. But I brought a Sports Illustrated to read with me

Thursday, 2/3/2011

I had to go out to the Laurel Highlands again today, so I decided to eat at the Cracker Barrel in New Stanton for breakfast. Several interesting occurrences ensued. First, I was seated next to a group of redneck guys who were using the F-word in polite conversation to each other. These guys looked like they came right out of the shallow end of the gene pool, so I guess they didn't know any better. Second, right in the middle of taking my order, my waitress let out a loud belch. You just don't see that every day, do you? Finally, my grits were terrible (lukewarm, too runny, and tasted bad) so when the happy cashier asked how my breakfast was, I told him about the crummy grits. He totally ignored my complaint and just gave me my change. I wish these people would stop asking me about my meal if they're not going to pay attention to my answer.

Coffee: Excellent
Food: Excellent except for the grits
Service: Excellent except for the belch
Ambience: Excellent except for the swearing rednecks
Newspaper: Prepurchased in Pittsburgh at Walgreen's

Wednesday, 2/2/2011

I decided to celebrate Ground Hog Day with breakfast at Panera on Centre Avenue. Thanks to accumulated purchases on my Panera Card, I received a free bagel (cinnamon raisin), which the girl behind the counter proceeded to drop on the floor after she had sliced and toasted it. Thankfully, she threw that one out and served up another one and managed not to drop it.

Coffee: Excellent
Food: Excellent
Service: Got to get a demerit for the bagel dropsies
Ambience: Excellent
Newspaper: Had to buy a P-G

Tuesday, 2/1/2011

My usual early Tuesday morning "to go" breakast from Make Your Mark was foiled this morning when they inexplicably were not open at 7 am. That was very annoying, because I then faced the horrible possibility that I might have to have breakfast at the VA. Thankfully, I got there early enough so I had time to walk down to the Pete. A cinnamon coffee and toasted cinnamon raisin bagel awaited me there, so I was a much happier camper.

Coffee: Excellent
Food: OK
Service: Typical sullen cashier
Ambience: Excellent - I had the Petersen Events Center all to myself
Newspaper: Free P-G!

Monday, 1/31/11

I thought I would try a new place this morning so I went to Voluto Coffee on Penn Avenue. I remember going there shortly after it opened and they had a fairly nice selection of pastries. Well, not any more! The selection was so bad I left. I just continued down towards Lawrenceville and had breakfast at Dozen. I was not disappointed in that they had a delicious cream danish with blueberries on top that was to die for. Unfortunately, the ambience was somewhat marred by employees in the bakery who were laughing and cackling like they were at a Chris Rock concert.

Coffee: Average (I am not a coffee connoisseur, so I usually am fairly liberal with my coffee grading, but their coffee this morning was not hot enough)
Food: Excellent
Service: Excellent
Ambience: Marred by loud employees
Newspaper: None. Had to settle for a City Paper they had in the establishment

Sunday, 1/30/2011

I had a clever plan this morning that totally backfired. I was going to try the Crazy Mocha in Squirrel Hill but before arriving I stopped at the Allegro Hearth Bakery across the street to get a nice pastry. Unfortunately, the selection at Allegro Hearth was positively awful, so I entered Crazy Mocha pastryless! I had to settle for a totally nondescript cinnamon bun wrapped in Saran Wrap.

Coffee: Excellent
Food: Average
Service: Excellent
Ambience: Excellent - nice and quiet which allowed me to read my book about John and Abigail Adams (The First Family)
Newspaper: Not applicable (I already had read the Sunday P-G at home).