CollegePointCafe

Since Independence Day the sun has beaten clouds back from the sky’s shores. This week feels like the summer of memory, the summer of movies, the summer of archetypes. I pick up the front page and my smile is struck with yet another memory, another archetype: “Two airplanes left the same airport traveling in opposite directions. If one airplane averages 400 miles per hour and the other…” And so the morning began. Two directions, too much to think about… the 8th grade algebra problem looming as large as the other disintegrative issues shining off the front page: “10,000 flee racing fire,” “Fiorina fights off campaign criticism,” and “Smelt’s survival in delta nears a new low.” So which will go best with coffee? Algebra? Natural disasters? Sexism? Environmental destruction? Or should I just nuzzle up to the headline in the corner: “Bears bite the market… some wonder if Wall Street has hit bottom yet.” Maybe I can stop an 8th grader to see what the algebra says. What about the simpler times, when I could go to a movie and forget about all this? According to the front page, “Hellboy 2: (is) hip mayhem.” Ah-hem (eyes looking side to side).

So I’m reminiscing as I wander into College Point Café, an almost hidden locale at 5248 College Avenue, at the intersection of College and Broadway. It aspires to be the quintessential corner store, packing in all manner of snacks and drinks (my favorite being the perfect-amounts of zip-locked mango slices for $1), flanked by a tasty looking deli, and rounded out by the standard coffee bar dispensers. Having already ordered, I decided to stick with my Ethiopian coffee. It was surprisingly good, though not reminiscent of Café Colluci. There are tables both inside and out (where did that space come from?), and I sat, as always, on the outside. I was the only one there. Pleasant breezes battled constant traffic, and I got a whiff of what it may feel like to be one of the firefighters along the coast, or perhaps an 8th grader taking an algebra exam early in the morning. Overall, a good place to stop in on your way to work, though not the best place to sit with a friend or your breakfast.

Enjoy your break slow. After all, if the front page does the math, we’ll be thrust in both directions, disintegrating toward some unknown variable. At least we’ll have coffee.

Breakfast in the Bay: Making sense of waking up since Tuesday, 2008.