Coffee Shop or Fish Market?

Two of Seattle's claims to fame are our coffee expertise and our local fish market...where they "toss" the fish. Whenever a visitor comes to Seattle, we locals generally make sure our guests visit the Pike Place Market to witness the fish toss and to take a peak at the original Starbucks Coffee Shop. You'd better advise your guests, however, which is which...because, frankly, it's getting harder and harder to tell the difference!

Let's take the WAMU Center Starbucks location for example. If you arrive anytime before 9.00 a.m. you'll stand in a line practically out the door, while baristas are yelling orders down the line.
"Can I help you get your order started, Ma'am?" They call out.

"Who me?" I turn to look around me. I'm seven people back from the ordering case. Could they be yelling down the line at me? "Um, I'll 'ave the pum...eh hem...eh HEM," I clear my throat, trying to wake my voice up. It's the first time I've spoken yet today and I've got morning voice...and it's definitely not ready to yell out my order through a crowd of businessmen. Getting my vocal chords in check, I call out "I'll have a tall, pumpkin spice, non-fat, no whip latte, please!" But I'm still a bit squeaky.

Barista: "What's your name?"

"Loreley," I croak.

Barista, writing on a paper cup and yelling down the line of baristas on the other side of the counter: "one tall, pumpkin spice, non-fat, no whip latte for Loreley!"

I just love that everyone in line 1. knows my name and 2. knows what I'm ordering. And they also know I can't speak before nine a.m.

I eventually make it to the cashier.

"What are we making for you?" he asks.

"A tall, pumpkin spice, non-fat, no whip latte."

"That will be a gazillion dollars." Cause it may as well be on my low income. But I continue to spend my precious greenbacks on these stupid fancy lattes! And pumpkin spice is seasonal....it's not going to be around forever.

Finally, I'm part of the crowd gathering around the "order pick up" area where there's a frenzy of drink orders being yelled out, names hollered, and cups tossed on the counter. People push ahead to claim their drink. I swear my cup is going to come flying at me like a Sockeye Salmon at the fish market and I'm going to have to shoot my hand up and catch it in midair! It's just a bit too stressful for a morning coffee experience.

Where are the days of sitting down with a cup of coffee, that comes served to us in a ceramic cup and saucer style apparatus? We sip it casually while chatting with a friend or co-worker. Instead we grab our paper cup and hurry out into the world, back to the office, with our coffee getting cold and spilling out of the little hole from which we are suppose to slurp it. Sigh.

We may be the experts on making the coffee drinks, but we need a lesson from our European friends on how to serve, drink and truly enjoy it.