Category: hangout spots
Coworking Chronicles: NextSpace Berkeley
Here’s the environment $25 gets you for one day (also what $350 gets you for one month)…
High ceilings with some yarn balls and natural light. Continue reading
My Idea of a Corner Office
Cost effective but ergonomically taxing.
Window-counter seating at Pachamama Coffee Cooperative.
For about $20 $10 more, I could hang out in the common areas of a coworking space, but I love the opportunities to people watch and overhear conversations here. And the cold brew coffee is fantastic.
Prepping for The Muse & The Marketplace 2015
I am so ready for this weekend, and I am psyched to be helping GrubStreet get ready for a weekend of extraordinary literary energy at The Muse and The Marketplace 2015! It’s been wonderful working with GrubStreet staff and fellow volunteers on some of the behind-the-scenes operations.
If you’re attending this conference on craft and publishing, I may have handled your mini-program/badge, amid the piles of them here, which we’ve been painstakingly yet lovingly attached color-coded lanyards to…
Ride Studio: Coffee and Bicycle Bliss
I love this bike shop cafe. Great pour over coffee and delightful atmosphere.
Intricate Landscapes and More: Hokusai at the MFA
The Hokusai exhibit at the Museum of Fine Arts is stunning in scope, both in terms of the sheer number of works on display and the evident artistry that went into each one. Some of the scenes rendered in the woodcut prints are like microcosms you easily get drawn right into. Also impressive is the variety of media Hokusai worked in and the diversity of subject matters his pieces focus on.
This is a fabulously immersive and engrossing tribute to a remarkable, seminal master.
in the first few rooms…
…you’ve just barely scratched the surface; prolific only begins to describe the breadth of work here.
Amazing how much detail is in each of these prints.
No Artificial Coloring: turkey meatballs with red cabbage at Mission: Heirloom
This is by far the purplest meal I’ve ever eaten, and it was delicious, like all of the grain-free meals I’ve had at the Mission: Heirloom cafe have been.
Here’s a look at their shepherd’s pie; there’s a lot of ground lamb beneath the surface with some broccoli.
Bagelsaurus: for the serious bagelvore
Onion bagel with scallion cream cheese.
Everyone I know who has been to Bagelsaurus loves it. And for good reason. The bagels, when toasted, have a nice crisp outside you’ll crunch through to a dense, chewy interior; the texture is fantastic as is the taste. Dang, it’s so wonderful. I’ve been there 3 times this week, and I tend not to repeat patronize food spots within a week, typically (to get variety).
If you like bagels and have no picky food preferences or dietary restrictions, you really can’t go wrong with anything on the menu, but there are just a few things I’d suggest:
- Don’t go there on a first date, or more specifically, don’t go there on a first date and order a bagel with cream cheese; awkward attempts at biting followed by the distracting, unbecoming oozing out of massively slathered cream cheese may ensue as you try to sever a morsel from the kind of carb-dairy-carb layered delectable shown below. Regardless of whether you’re on a date or not, you might want to have some napkins handy (or maybe I just haven’t figured out the trick to eating these things more gracefully).
- If you order a bagel with cream cheese, eat it there or soon after getting it to go; it’s just not nearly as good once it starts losing that crisp and warmth it got from the toasting.
- The times I’ve tried the pretzel bagel, it’s been seriously salty. Maybe that works for you, but just know what you’re getting into.
More than just coffee: fun messages at Philz Coffee
What would otherwise have been a blank bit of wall at Philz Coffee becomes a delightful jaunt into the realm of magical realism with mini-missives from human qualities and abstractions. Awesome.
My Faves in Portland, OR
The Hoyt Arboretum: an extensive network of trails through an impressive collection of tree specimens; the redwoods are spectacular (take a moment to feel the bark of giant sequoia).
The Portland Japanese Garden: a soothing, meticulously designed and maintained set of horticultural mini-landscapes.
Blue Star Donuts: delicious donuts served up in a crisply minimalist space of glass, metal and wood; it’s like the Apple Store of donut shops.
Chef Naoko Bento Cafe: palate-exhilarating Japanese cuisine prepared with organic ingredients. Continue reading
A Contemplative Compilation 