EmporioRuilli

When I emerged from the Powell BART stop I was glad to have my peacoat, but the clouds seemed to march away with each step as my search for Union Square got warmer and warmer in all ways. It was a treat to take a coat and a load off at the Emporio Ruilli’s, a bustling coffee stop literally in Union Square. It was like stumbling into a small Italian town, from the accent of my barista to the Mediterranean beauty of my latte. And there was a sea of fine pastries to boot! It was, above all, great people watching. Seeing the morning crowd of people is caffeine for a thousand books a day, and for this writer, it was hard to find time to sip I was taking so many notes. From tourists in awkward shorts with flashy bags to retail girls with flashy skirts and designer bags, it was a parade of stories. The service was great, the latte thick, and the sun shining: hard to decide what to talk about first!

When I finally settled into the Chronicle’s front page, I found it was also riddled with decisions. Looming large across the entire page: “Clash on Iraq defines differences.” Obama thinks we need to leave and McCain thinks we need to stay. Now there’s a decision. It seemed like the headlines descended from national to local, the others outlining how “Yahoo and Google go to Congress on ad deal,” and the “Firing up attack on S.F. smokers.” Before I go any further: are the two internet advertising and search giants, the two facilitators of the electronic age, really called Yahoo and Google? [insert baby-talk joke here]. And is it possible to seem imposing in a suit if you are representing a company called Microsoft? [insert size does matter joke here]. Clearly I was in the mood for a good laugh, and any anti-trust case in Congress is always good for that. As for the smoking bans, the list of proposed bans is long, and the changes would be significant. Not in bars, not in line, not in public areas inside or out, etc. I’ll just say it was beyond great sitting outside the Emporio Ruilli with lots of sun and no smoke.

Enjoy your break slow, dear readers. After all, if the front page makes our decisions, we’ll be arguing about everything, and that just ruins a good coffee break.

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