Looking for a good cup o' joe? Try these places out on your next road trip...

We should thank Kaldi. He’s the Ethiopian goat herder who noticed that when his goats nibbled on the bright red berries of a certain bush they became more energetic (jumping goats).  After trying the beans himself, he was exhilarated and took the berries to an Islamic holy man in a nearby monastery. But the holy man disapproved of their use and threw them into a fire, from which an enticing aroma billowed. The roasted beans were quickly raked from the embers, ground up, and dissolved in hot water, yielding the world's first cup of coffee. We should also thank the Brits, who through their attempts to tax tea, unwittingly helped make America a nation of coffee drinkers. When I travel, one of the ways I stay grounded is by connecting with a local town or population at their local coffee bars.  Some choose a different type of watering hole, but for me, the preference is coffee. This last week I had the opportunity to visit a few coffee houses unlike what we usually see in the cookie cutter strip mall infused Southwest. First up was Palenque Coffee and Doomsday Donuts in Ripon, Wisconsin... With a faux log cabin look on the outside and a stereotypical Mayan logo, I’ll admit, I was skeptical.  Was I ever surprised.  Once I entered the doors, I was welcomed into what can only be described as coffee heaven.  Rugged and minimal on the inside, this place is off the charts! I had a cup of Indian Monsoon coffee.  Light, medium roasted, this coffee was exceptionally smooth and had absolutely no bitter after taste.  100% stunning. But coffee is not their only gift.  These guys also sell the most ambitious donuts I have ever come across.  Imagine a s’mores donut.  That’s right... a plain cake topped with chocolate, small graham crackers and tiny marshmallows.  Or maybe you’d like a cream puff sandwich filled with raspberry filling or an old fashioned maple bar... topped with a strip of crispy bacon. They call them one of a kind donuts and the selection changes everyday.  Believe me, they are worth every penny of the $1.00 - $2.00 price, and they look great as Cesar demonstrates here. I’ll be honest, I have no idea how a place like this will stay afloat in a small town like Ripon.  I hope it does... because it is the only place in town where a young man from Puerto Rico can work in a Mayan themed coffee house selling fresh roasted java from around the world paired with a great American classic, the donut, updated to a new standard. Next up are a couple of places, Spots Coffee and Cafe Aroma, both located in the Elmwood District of Buffalo, New York. Spots Coffee has a few locations around town but since I was in the Elmwood area, that’s the one I visited.  Here’s what you get. A large interior with a distinctly rugged urban feel.  Brick walls surround the coffee bar and kitchen area while the exterior of this corner building is framed in large glass windows, making you feel like you are right in the middle of the action. With local art and fantastic coffee, this place oozes coffee house charm. We took up a seat in an old church pew that had been repurposed and became a nice local addition to the interior design.  Surveying the crowd, there was definitely a mixture of the local population.  Moms with kids, students from nearby Buffalo State studying and businessmen in suits were all sharing space in the large dining area. But as nice as the facility was, the coffee was why we were there and we were not disappointed.  I had a wonderful cafe breve, my friends had a caramel machiatto and a double espresso.  My breve came with great art on top and the machiatto was also well displayed, a Spots tradition.   Spots is a big place.  Think tables everywhere and lots of small groups populating the place.  If I lived nearby, I’d be there often.  It’s spacious, has free wifi and a great menu for lunch and dinner.  In the end, we were all very satisfied and not wishing at all that we had gone to Starbucks, just a block away.  My final stop before heading to the airport and the flight back to Las Vegas was Caffe Aroma.   This place is other worldly if you have been raised out west.  Small, with not a lot of tables, dark wood and granite, it was old school, complete with local microbrews and beer on tap. My espresso was strong and not bitter at all and my friends Americano, hot and smooth, as it should be.   What separated Caffe Aroma from nearby Spots or Starbucks was the atmosphere.  Small and intimate... if you are here, you are part of the village.  My friends called it the neighborhood coffee house and it was.  Think of it as the bar where everybody knows your name.  If you were a regular, my guess is that they would even know your drink.   If you want to understand the ethos of the people of this area, spend a day here.  I had a great conversation with a guy just talking politics.  Other groups were discussing the baseball playoffs.  This is where President Obama or Governor Romney ought to be if they want to know what is important to Buffalo. So there you have it.  If you are in Ripon, Wisconsin, get a great cup of coffee and a fantastic donut at Palenque.  If you are in Buffalo, don’t miss a chance to check in at one of the Spots locations around town... And if you want to know what makes Buffalonians tick while enjoying some great java or even a glass of Southern Tier Pumking Ale, make sure to visit Caffe Aroma in the Elmwood District.

Dinner in Wisconsin... a little bit of midwest food and culture...

I’ve been in Wisconsin a few days for a conference.  One of the joys of travel is the chance to partake of the local culture, particularly the food.  This trip was no different. Even though my time was limited, I was still able to get a sense of what you might find in a small rural Wisconsin town like Ripon, [pronounced rip - en] birthplace of the Republican Party and home to “Ripon Good Cookies.” As s our custom at this conference, our first night is dinner at one of the local eateries.  Our host Randy, a Wisconsonite, asured me about halfway through dinner that we were indeed in what would be known as your typical Wisconsin supper club. If what I experienced was a supper club, it was clear pretty early I was not in Las Vegas anymore. We went to Alibi’s Dining and Spirits.  For Tuesday Taco & Pizza Buffet Night... Including the salad bar for only $6.99. As someone who spends considerable time in Mexico, you know I was excited to get a chance to experience some good Mexican food north of the border.  Being all you could eat was just a bonus. I started with the salad.  Shredded iceberg lettuce, cherry tomatoes, a few sliced bell peppers and topped with... wait for it... Bac-os!  Top that off with some Hidden Valley Ranch and you get the classic American Salad.  Without any real bacon, because bacos only contain some artificial bacon flavor. Next up was my trip to the pizza bar.  As I surveyed my options, one pizza caught my eye.  It was a different looking concoction with some type of mystery meat melted into the Wisconsin cheese topping. I took it back to my seat anxiously awaiting the upcoming explosion of flavor when it happened.  On my first, and only bite, the pizza oozed everywhere.  I sat there trying to somehow compute in my brain what had just happened.  I was holding what felt like pizza and had the shape of pizza, but was unlike any pizza I have ever had in my life.  There before me was a half eaten triangle of gooey, cheesy, meaty pizza dripping thousand island dressing and sauerkraut. Yep, you guessed it.  I had unwittingly picked up a slice of Rueben Pizza and it was now dripping all over the table.  I may have had a worse tasting pizza in my life, but I would be hard pressed to recall it.  Never before, and never again will I ever eat a Rueben Pizza.  It was absolutely horrible.  You’d think the international pizza review board would have prevented this idea from ever moving forward. As I sat there facing a two strike count, I knew there was no way I was going to hit the hard slider known as the taco bar, but I had to try.  So up to bat I went. And there it was.  In all it’s full glory, the classic midwest interpretation of the taco bar.  6 flour tortillas, a pan of thin crispy hard pre-cooked shells and of course, seasoned hamburger meat.  Add in the canned refried beans, more shredded lettuce, diced tomatoes, the generic guacamole from a factory and some pico de gallo sin chile, and you’ve got all the makings of a first class taco. Notice the yummy hard shell tortillas You know what?  This was the best part of the meal.  Was it Mexican?  Not at all.  Was it good?  Of course.  And it was a lot better than some odd pizza concoction exploding all over the table, and my face. Add in the Spotted Cow Beer from Wisconsin Brewery New Glarus, and you hardly noticed the downsides of the night. Would I go back?  Probably.  On Pizza, Salad, and Taco Tuesday?  Never.  And neither should you, unless of course you want to live dangerously and get the Rueben Pizza.  Just make sure you take your bib. Average price, $7.00 - $15.00 for dinner plus your beer, a Wisconsin must. Alibi’s Dining and Spirits, Ripon, Wisconsin.

Liars, Lies and Stinking Lies... tearing at the fabric of America...

The Supreme Court colluded to steal the election from Al Gore. Barack Obama is a Muslim loving commie who was not born in the US, and thus has no right to be President. George Bush lied to take us into war in Iraq.   Barack Obama hates American and wants to destroy her. The attacks on 9/11 were an inside job, planned by Israel or the Bush Administration. This will be the last free election we will ever have if Barack Obama wins because he is going to impose martial law so he can be dictator. George Bush is happy every day an American soldier dies in the war in Iraq. The recent unemployment numbers are the result of a conspiracy on the part of the Obama Administration to win the argument. And now, if Obama does well in the next debate, it will be because the networks gave him the questions ahead of time. Really? We could laugh this type of stuff off if political leaders on the side of the people making these charges would step up to the plate and refute these crazy charges, but they won’t. For some reason, as a society, we’ve decided to let the inmates run the asylum.  We are letting the idiots get the last word. We have no evidence that any of the above statements are true. SCOTUS awarding the presidency to Bush?  Al Gore lost his home state!  The people that know him best did not want him. The birth certificate issue? You’ve seen everything you asked for and you are still not satisfied. 9/11? Bush happy with dead Americans? Obama hates America? Are the people that believe this stuff idiots? I don’t think so because I personally know some folks that passionately believe these stories. But something has seriously gone wrong with the ethos of our country if we can cavalierly choose to demonize a president or government when things do not go as we wish.  And let’s make no mistake about it.  The people that promote these views are demonizing our government and our presidents with their words and their actions. These are not simple protests against a point of view.  These are not peaceful protests aimed at changing a point of view with an intellectual argument. These are attempts to change a point of view by demonizing the other side.   These are attempts to change a point of view by assigning the most heinous interpretation, reason, or understanding to the other side.  This is school yard bullying taken to nth degree. It is ruining America, and worse, our politicians refuse to step in and take a stand, for fear of alienating their supporters who are making these charges.  Rather than do what’s right and good for America, too often our political “leaders” have instead chosen to not just remain silent, but fan the flames of discord. When the President’s place of birth was questioned, where was one leader of the Republican Party to say he believed President Obama and those that thought otherwise were not just misguided, but wrong?   When Harry Reid called President Bush a liar, why did the Democratic Party allow him to remain as head of the party?  How is that being respectful to a President? Why is the night when Senator John McCain took the microphone away from a woman who was being disrespectful towards candidate Obama about the only profile in courage we can cite from our elected leaders these days? Does our government make mistakes?  Yes they do.  And like a kid caught with his hand in the cookie jar, sometimes our government lies to cover it up.  Like they did in the Vietnam War.  Like they did at Watergate.  Like they did in Iran-Contra. But this is no reason, or excuse to treat every bit of information that does not support your personal world or political point of view as a vast right, or left wing conspiracy. Get some meds, get a life, take a vacation and get some perspective. And then call your Congressman or Senator and tell him or her you are sick of this stuff and want them to stand up and do what’s right this election season, not for themselves, but for America. Once you've done that, resolve yourself to be part of the solution.  If people are saying President Bush was happy to see black people dead after Hurricane Katrina, tell them they are wrong, just as you should when people say President Obama is guilty of treason. Because these views are not only wrong, they tear at the very fabric of the cloth that holds America together. What say you?