more obvious places where good coffee should be

November 16, 2011 – 11:47 pm

monaco: crazy place! more ferraris than fords, more obviously forced royal wedding photos that any public should be required to see. and such a fine (nonexistent?) line between “personal yacht” and “cruise ship.”

and yet, it’s kind of amazing that for all the fine food, captive populace, french sensibilities and disposable income sloshing around in the place, there is NO FINE COFFEE.

right, yes. an old theme from this blog. and in paris, it would appear, a deplorable condition is finally changing.

still, you ponder the american hinterlands, and you nonetheless have fine establishments in places like nashville and charleston. you ponder france (and the little .75-square-mile country nestled in it) and you have a higher standard of food, a more deeply rooted history with espresso, a huge population of tourists, all the usual complements (chocolate, pastry) and MONEY to be spent … but still nothing. in monaco itself, people are literally walking around just browsing the new mclarens.

it’s like it hasn’t occurred to anyone. but this can’t possibly be true. at this point, such a market is so obvious you kind of wonder what the secret impediment is. and don’t offer “tradition” or “haughtiness,” things that play into french stereotypes but that don’t remotely hold up to rigorous examination.

perhaps there’s no one really pushing anything in france yet — a supreme irony if ever there was one. and perhaps, for all the internationalism of the fine coffee movement, it’s really not that international-minded, as far as business goes. or maybe it’ll take stumptown to make a leap this big.

nothing but a couple new and teensy places in paris. and just think, in monaco you could serve espresso on the beach to formula one drivers and their yacht parkers. such a thing!


yacht size relativity, illustrated.