August 22, 2006

Not all Madison cafés are glamorous.

Or are they?

Café
Posted by Ann Althouse at 5:52 PM
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9 comments:

Tonya said...

Did you go inside? Check it out if you haven't. There are several different rooms and they have different atmospheres and furnishings. The chairs are more comfy than in other coffee shops. Also,there are lamps on the tables, which I love because I often go to coffee shops to get work done.

8/22/06, 6:18 PM
Ann Althouse said...

I usually go to Espresso Royale, at the University end of State Street... now that they've got the air conditioning fixed. There are many good places in Madison though.

8/22/06, 7:41 PM
Tonya said...

I love Barriques too, but I like to go to a variety of coffee shops depending on what I plan to do (and whether I want to walk or drive there). It's often hard to work in Barriques because there's a lot going on.

I keep wondering about that Ben and Jerry's American Pie ice cream (see ad in side bar on the right). Has anybody tried that?

8/22/06, 8:00 PM
Anonymous said...

Actually, that place looks pretty cool. I like the fact that it's not quaint.

8/22/06, 8:38 PM
Ann Althouse said...

DTL: That's why I wrote "Or are they?"

8/22/06, 10:36 PM
MadisonMan said...

Well, I *did* like Dancing Grounds (although my neighbor found the coffee dreadful and the pastries worse). Eureka Joe's was great -- and I still sometimes stop at the Faux Joe's that's there now. My current fave, though, is Indie Coffee on Regent Street, even though I once wrote I hated the perkiness of the morning staff, I've come to enjoy it. And their iced coffee is great.

8/23/06, 1:31 PM
MadisonMan said...

Dancing Grounds was on N. Allen, just around the corner from Regent St. It closed in early August. I don't think they ever recovered from trying to expand to two stores.

8/24/06, 7:53 AM
Ann Althouse said...

Dancing Grounds missed out on a chance for some nice free promotion on this blog when they advertised free internet, then didn't have it, and responded to the problem irritatingly. Here's the post I did -- scroll down -- which included pictures showing it as a cool place. I wrote:

"I'm afraid I'm going to have to punish them because the WiFi did not work. First, it asked for a password, and I went up and had to call "hello?" into the backroom to get a person to come out and let me know if I needed a password. She wrote down a 10-digit code for me to enter, but it still didn't work, after several tries. I went back up, had to call out again, and said the password wasn't working. Her response, in its entirety, was "I'm not an IT person." Arrgghh! At least say you're sorry. And give me a cookie or something!

"So I won't give them a free advertisement on my popular blog. And I will probably never come back here again. I will continue to frequent my favorite State Street cafés: Espresso Royale, Michelangelo's, and Fair Trade. Business owners, take note: do not disappoint the people who care about WiFi!"

8/24/06, 8:27 AM
MadisonMan said...

Yes, that expansion to just off State Street was ill-advised for many reasons. I think it was only open for about 2 months? The location just off Regent, though, was the closest coffee shop to my house, so I'm sorry to see it go. I wonder what the West High students will do for caffeine now -- they'll have to hike all the way to University or to Monroe St!

8/24/06, 9:13 AM

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