I met up with Dave today for a short catch up. He introduced me a coffee shop started up by one of his colleagues called Bennu located on E MLK Blvd, not far off from I-35. Upon walking in, I was already a fan as I noted they’re open 24 hours. There’s not enough coffee shops open up 24 hours these days. Also, it’s the biggest coffee shop I’ve been to in a while with MANY seats, many tables, and many outlets. I could also tell instantly, that this place is a popular place. It has a very Austiny feel.

I wanted to try their green tea smoothie but their blender’s broken. The last few places I’ve tried to order a smoothie have declared their blender broken. I’m starting to think it’s me. I opted for my usual order, an iced chai latte. It’s not as good as my favorite at Sodade, and it has an odd color, but it was a’ite. There’s a credit card minimum of five dollars so I ordered a cheese danish. Yum. I need to gain back some of the weight I lost from being sick.

Often times, I want to meet up with someone to study or read and we leave our apartments at 9 with many places closing down at 11. I now have a quaint and cozy place we can steal away to and let time escape us. How exciting.

Odd Color Chai

Davey brought me some tea to take home. He always brings me little presents and treats. I like that grandfather clock.

Pretty Window

Related Blog Entries

- August 25, 2009 – Sodade
- June 2, 2009 – He cooks, He cleans
- February 28, 2008 – Oh My Darling, Clementine

After our dinner at Asti, Kim and I wanted to have coffee talk so we walked across the street from Asti to Quack’s 43rd Street Bakery. She used to come here during college to study whereas I’ve never been. I need to come during the day sometime because apparently they have the best latte foam art. I like latte foam art. Instead, we split a chocolate almond croissant and I ordered a hot chocolate. Chocolate croissants are something I love love love. They used to be my medicine for bad days at work or school.

Nothing outstanding about their hot chocolate or chocolate crossiant but they are each inherently comforting and indulgent. Soothing to my soul.

We sat outside to keep our conversations more private. Here’s a picture of the inside from our table.

I’ve mentally flagged this coffee shop in my memory as a shop I need to go back to for my next coffee date. I want latte foam art!

I was originally going to post a book review of Eleven Minutes but am still battling a cold and the review would have been a doozy to write. I will have that up tomorrow instead. I’m now going to dope myself up with newly acquired medicine, shower, and crash.

Other Hot Chocolate Mentions:
- July 13, 2009: Hugo’s fantastic mexican hot chocolate (Houston)
- April 10, 2008: Dylan’s Candy Bar (NYC)
- Feb 28, 2008: Clementine (Austin)
- Dec 2, 2007: Hands down, the best hot chocolate of my life at Chocolate Bar (Houston)

Not only is Sodade the closest coffee shop to my apartment, but it also has the best chai latte I’ve had. It’s the only thing I ever order at this coffee shop. I was frequenting coffee shops everyday last week. I’m not quite sure how you pronounce Sodade. I should ask next time I’m there.

This is one of my trips. You can see the date of this visit on my journal. Jon needed a coffee shop with internet to do some work so I suggested what was most convenient to me, hee. I actually finished Eleven Minutes on August 21, 2009. I just haven’t gotten around to writing the book review yet. It’s soon coming.

Here’s a picture of the interior and Jon and our laptops. Jon’s on his way back to NYC. No more day time play buddy for me.

The new things of the week:

I bought my first CD. Now I’m doing something with my savings. I’m slowly growing up!

Friday night, I had an informal eating contest with my BFFE (a boy, left out his name as to not really embarrass him) at a Chinese buffet called Lam Bo. We had eight plates of food each but I won because he gave up. Heh. So the terms? We had to eat exactly the same thing and if one person finished their plate first, the other had a minute and a half to finish his/her plate. He looked awfully sick after the third plate but he kept at it. I’m proud of him. It was funny following each other around the buffet asking each other:

“How about this?”

“Hey your piece is bigger than mine!”

I think we easily had eight thousand calories each. He kind of cheated though and threw up most of it on his way home that night. :( I let it sit and accumulate on my ass.

Then Saturday, Cindy introduced me to a quaint coffee shop called Agora. Where she proceeded to educate me.

Me: “I used to know what agora meant….. does it have anything to do with rabbit?”

Cindy: “No, that’s ANgora.”

We sat in front of a window and our view instructed us to “cut loose.”

So I love Agora. Minus the no parking. There’s a different candle on each table with a lighter. And… there’s a mirror in the bathroom next to the toilet. It made me laugh and amused me enough to take a picture of it.

It reminded me of one of my favorite professors from undergrad. He once said, “If you have a hard time NOT taking yourself so seriously, here’s what you do, take a mirror and put it in front of a toilet. It’s hard to take yourself seriously watching yourself on the toilet.”

THEN! Then the icing on the cake was the bookstore across the street. Domy.

I loved it. I like Cindy’s description of it. It’s Urban Outfitter’s book selection on crack.

And it is.

Domy also had a very sweet patio in the back.

We made friends with Russell, the manager. So if you ever visit tell him we sent you. I bought a book, of course. 1000 Journals Project.