Espresso Road Trip: Squirrel Hill

Frank and I took a trip up to Squirrel Hill late this afternoon to visit the newly crowned "Best of Pittsburgh"  (according to Pittsburgh magazine) 61c Cafe on Murray Ave. and also stopped by the venerable Coffee Tree Roasters on Forbes.

One of the things we noticed upon entering 61c was that it seemed most everyone was seated in the front by the window.  Then we realized that's where the outlets were that were powering the five laptop-wielding customers.  The shop uses only 2-tops (two-person tables), which can be put together in a myriad of ways as there ar e a lot of 2-tops in the joint. 

Frank got a straight single shot of the LaPrima (we asked which blend it was, but the barista didn't know and showed us an unlabeled bag).  I ordered a single capp (I know, bad form to order capps in the afternoon, but this is market research).  The shots we had were pulled in just short 20 seconds to about 1oz.  The capp was extra dry, with lots of mounded foam.

This was the second time I've worn an Intelligentsia t-shirt on one of our road trips.  And both baristas on duty had actually heard of Intelly - the first time we'd encountered any awareness.  John (? - hope I got the name right), the older of the two baristas on duty, came to town fairly recently from Raleigh and just bought a house not far from the intersection of Blue Horse and Starbucks at the Galleria (that would be Connor/Gilkeson/Washington).  Frank, who lived in Chicago for five years, had an interesting conversation with one of the customers who was also a former Chitown resident.

We both agreed that there was a charm to the place.  Given the location and the neighborhood, it's easy to understand why 61c is so popular.

We then walked around the corner to Coffee Tree and switched roles, I had the shot, Frank had the capp, which again was extra dry.  Having never been to the Squirrel Hill location before, I was surprised that the size seemed very small compared to the newer Shadyside location we visited back in July.

This particular Coffee Tree location appeared to have the best and broadest selection of coffeemaking paraphenalia in town, including an unusual Technivorm hybrid coffee/tea brewer we hadn't seen before.

We say "appeared" in the past tense because we then discovered a new store, Margaret's Fine Imports, that sells nothing but coffee and tea brewing equipment and accessories - and also appears to be a Counter Culture Coffee retailer, according to the sticker on it's door (it appears Ryan is doing his job).  Unfortunately we couldn't get into shop as it was 6:10 and Margaret's closes at 6:00pm.  But we'll be back - looked like some interesting stuff inside.

On the way back to the car we came across a middle eastern deli that was selling cezves, so we bought one in anticpation of next Friday's belly dancing night.  It's was only $5 - most places online were asking $15, not including shipping.  A bargain.

But the night wasn't done.  Frank suggested that we visit the Sphinx Lounge, a hookah joint on Carson at 9th.  Given I'd given up cigs back in February I wasn't all that keen on smoking anything, but we went anyway, had two delightful Egyptian coffees and some excellent baklava. 

One of my legs fell asleep while sitting on the floor, so it took some time to actually get up and leave.  We used that time judiciously, engaging the owner in some conversation about belly dancing schools and the differences between Egyptian and Turkish coffees (Egyptians boil only once, bring the head to the top of the pot and pour, while Turkish usually boils three times).  We thanked her by buying two more cezves (also only $5).

All in all, a productive road trip.

Comments

[Mike White]

Road Trip! Wanna meet us in Philly this weekend? Bet you can guess why we're going...

[Rich]

Mike,
We'd love to, but we're stuck here. Only chance of getting to Philly is for the Jam in two weeks.

I must've missed something from my feeds... have no idea why you're in Philly. Only guess is that Hornall is doing something special at Chestnut Hill?

[Mike White]

sorry if i mislead you Rich, you didn't miss anything. But you're right about Hornall, he's doing something special. Word is there's another shop down there as well, using Counter Culture. Roadtrip!