Saturday, July 31, 2010

Coffee Culture - Dr. Insomnia's

I had forgotten how nice it is to hang out in a coffee house. Of late, my coffee culture has been confined to home. Wake up, make coffee, toast bagel and jump on the computer. On a little road trip last week we decided rather than pay the hotel fee for internet it would be nice to have breakfast and coffee at Starbucks with free access to the net. It was a block walking distance and it had good coffee, pastries, breakfast sandwiches and happy employees. There was some really great people watching too.

Once home we fell back into the routine, but this morning it struck me that it would be fun to check out some local coffee house. Yes, there are several Starbucks in our town but we wanted to try an independent. Our choice was Dr. Insomnia's on the corner of Reichert and Grant Avenues in Novato. The place has been around a long time. I was a regular, back in the nineties, when it first opened. It is still as nice as it was then with outdoor seating and funky artwork.
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Once inside, you are greeted by a display counter stocked with beautiful bounty of pastries. April chose a bear claw (her favorite!) and I a scuffin. No, not a spelling error - it is a hybrid of a scone and muffin and it rocks!
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We took up a spot in the back room with a lone motorcycle officer as company. Soon he was joined by three others and they held an impromptu meeting. I glanced over as the they were served burritos. Breakfast burritos, we must have one! I went to the counter and ordered one to split. If law enforcement eats them with all the choices they have in Marin - they had to be good. No surprise, it was wonderful! Next time I will go directly to the burrito as breakfast. I read my library book and April played on the computer. We left full, happy and well protected from speeding vehicles.
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Breakfast Burrito!

5 comments:

cookiecrumb said...

I love Dr. Insomnia's. It's worth a trip.
Didn't know about the burrito! Eeee.

Zoomie said...

They have good iced coffee, too - I had one on one hot summer day last year and can still recall how good it was!

Greg said...

Cookiecrumb- there is a sign that I missed. Glad law enforcement was on the culinary forefront.
Zoomie- Going to try the iced next time.

Chilebrown said...

Hanging out in a coffe shop is kool. I am so old I remeber hanging out at the original Peets at Vine and Walnut in Berkeley.(Sort of, I was a delivry person that had that route.). I did hang out at a coffee shop on College Av. in the 70's that was run by the Moonies. They had the killer cheesecake.

cookiecrumb said...

Chilebrown: That was the first Peet's. I remember.