Cafe One Eight: Lancaster, PA

Cute. It’s used too often, like “that child is so cute.” Well, no because he is crying and throwing food at people but sure if you wanna say cute that’s fine. Or “that dog is so cute,” well it’s about to bite you, but if you think bleeding is cute then by all means call it cute. To describe the café in Lancaster city, Café One Eight, the word cute, with its true meaning, is very fitting. City chic meets cute. With exposed brick walls, hanging basket seats, and a chalkboard painted wall where the specials are written, it’s cute.

I’m a sucker for exposed brick walls. I swear I spent about twenty minutes gushing about the brick walls and the paintings hanging from them. My friend was most likely planning her exit during my impromptu lecture on why I love brick walls. Chalkboard paint added an earthy feel. It was their very own handwriting lining the walls. The handwriting was of course perfect, since the café as a whole is just that, perfect.

                All the employees, on the day that I visited, were Plain Mennonite causing me to feel a bit sinful for wearing pants but I’ll repent later. Yes, it has the coffee drinks that everyone so desires, but it also has a full menu of food selections. I personally chose a Santa Fe Chicken Salad. To. Die. For. After consuming that salad the thought did cross my mind of attempting to work there. That salad was so good I would easily and happily start wearing a long jean skirt and head covering. I am from Lancaster afterall, and have more than my fair share of Mennonite blood running through my veins.  

My beautiful friend Erin 

                My best friend, Erin, and I sat towards the front of the café where floor to ceiling windows allow for the perfect people watching. A construction worker, a mom with a Duggar Family amount of children, the scenery outside is quite eclectic but inside the mix of people seem to be business waiting to get take out, mom’s meeting up for a get-me-out-of-the-house kind of lunch, and people like my friend and I who had a we-see-each-other-everyday-but-we-act-like-its-been-years kind of lunch.

                If you have a chance and want to be embraced by the true definition of cuteness and their amazing mission statement, then head on down to Orange Street for a bite to eat at Café One Eight. 

Ocean City Coffee Company; Ocean City, New Jersey

                Vacationing doesn’t mean a break from coffee, unless of course you WANT to see the ugly side of your family. You all know what side I’m talking about. That side where crow’s feet appear more prevenatly, to the point that you don’t recognize your mother as she mutters some speech about the good old days. Mini-golf trips turn into who can beat the other person with the club the hardest, picking the perfect place on the beach to set up becomes an hour long event and so on. That is beside the point. If you are lucky enough to find yourself in the quaint town, Ocean City, New Jersey then you may find yourself searching for a café to quench your coffee thirst. Ocean City Coffee Company in New Jersey; the opportune place for vacationers to grab their java. 

                With no door, you simply meander in right off from the boardwalk, still clinging to the sea licked air as you order your coffee. This café doesn’t distract you with sandwiches, salads etc. they have their coffee, cappuccino’s, lattes, chai, tea, muffins and a few other small snacks but for this café it’s all about getting the customer their Fix. While many of the stores as well as condos at the beach focus their interior design on that seashells-plastered-on-the-walls-this-is-the-beach-so-enjoy-the-fish-wallpaper feel,  The Coffee Company doesn’t. Their interior is a bit rustic. Your path as you enter is lined on either side with full bags of coffee beans which they roast in shop to your left. Mahogany shelving lines the right wall, displaying mugs, coffee beans the whole lot, not too much to distract but enough to catch the eye.

                With no seating, you grab your coffee and go. A coffee drive through, so to speak.  This avoids frustrated moments of searching for a table, old men in the corner waiting for girls in bikinis, and small children screaming for the 9,323 time that they want a milkshake. Well send the kids to Kelis’s yard to get that milkshake because you don’t want to miss your daily stop at Ocean City's Coffee Company.