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September 12, 2006
On the homefront
Christy, God bless her, recently told me she thinks Lancaster has a certain small-town charm. I don't know about that, personally. But hey, the place is moving up in the world:
Two Mexican-style restaurants and a Starbucks drive-through are coming to Lancaster.
Renovations are under way to turn the former Chi Chi's building into La Cascada, an authentic Mexican restaurant that has sister locations in Logan and Hillsboro.
A sign that reads The Shops at North Memorial sits in front of the former Bob Evans Restaurant off Memorial Drive, near Arby's. The site, which includes the former Taco Bell building, is the future site of Starbucks and Chipotle, a casual dining Mexican restaurant.
I am willing to bet that as soon as the Mexican place and Chipotle open, the Eagle-Gazette is going to have a story asking people what they think about it. I guess there is a certain charm to that.
This is going to be a banner year for my little brother. He loves Starbucks and Chipotle. When he is around, he takes the dog for car rides to the Chipotle in Columbus, and he gets a burrito and the dog gets a kid's meal or something. On the other hand, my dislike of Chipotle has been well-documented. Now he doesn't have to drive 25 miles to Columbus to get a burrito, they can go into town to get it. I have made it a mission of sorts to convince my brother that there are better burritos around then the tripe they serve at Chipotle.
Starbucks is more of an interesting case. At the Kroger's on Main Street in Lancaster, there is a Starbuck's already. It is located inside the store. My brother also likes to go there and get some haughty frappucino looking dealie or something - I am not entirely sure what it is. I think he likes the Starbucks because he thinks it makes him look worldly. But anything Britney Spears does can't be too worldly. He and my dad go there sometimes and drink coffee, but not often because my dad usually makes his coffee at home.
My dad is an interesting coffee character. He drinks his coffee black. No cream, no sugar. One time, we went to Italy and Greece and my dad had a hell of a time finding black coffee, because everyone in Italy and Greece is European and they only drink fruity flavored coffee there. The trick, he found, was to ask for "American Coffee" and then it was sufficiently black.
When my dad drinks coffee, he sips it for a little bit. When he has had enough of sipping, he chugs the rest regardless of the heat and says "aaaaaah!" He had a hot water tap installed in the house so he could make scalding hot coffee without having to heat the water himself. He drinks coffee like other people drink water. He drinks it when he mows the lawn on 90 degree days. We know that because the tractor doesn't have a cupholder, and the tractor has coffee stains on the hood where he would put his cups of coffee. When he was done with the coffee, he would toss the ceramic mug onto the side of the lawn that had just been mowed. Then we'd find the mugs three weeks later when we had to mow the lawn again.
My first car, the Shaggin Wagon/Timmobile, had coffee stains all over it. The car had a cupholder, but coffee mugs didn't fit into it, so he would put his mug on the dashboard. Coffee would spill all over it, and then the car would smell like coffee. But because he had about a eight minute drive to work, he would have to chug the coffee in eight minutes. After the "aaah!", he'd toss the mug onto the passenger seat. I'd find them every now and then, and I'd say, "I don't want you drinking coffee in my car!" Even though it really was his car.
I guess you could say my dad loves coffee. Me, I don't care for it. When I was about 16, I thought I would give it a try, but I couldn't stand the taste. I thought dropping sugar and cream into it would make it more tolerable, but all it did was triple the calorie content. I gave up the experiment after a few weeks, and haven't had coffee since. My frothy drink of choice is now the more pleasurable hot chocolate. I am further disinclined to try coffee because of so many people I know who have awful coffee/cigarette breath. Not that I smoke, but maybe coffee is a gateway drug to smoking?
I don't think my dad goes for Starbucks coffee. He likes the 99 cent stuff that comes in the vending machine with the playing cards like in Terminator 2. Maybe he'll be conviced to try it, I don't really know. But my brother will love it.
Posted by oz115 at September 12, 2006 10:10 AM
Comments
Your town may have some charm, but this post sucks! Next time you babble on and on do it about something people care about, like SHOES!
Posted by: Christy at September 14, 2006 06:46 PM
Hooray for hot chocolate!!
What is wrong with your town?? Everything new is being built in a former-something else...
And christy is right, way too much rambling about coffee...
-G
Posted by: G at September 15, 2006 05:32 PM
F you all. This is a story about my dad, not about coffee!
Posted by: tim at September 15, 2006 06:07 PM