As Colorado thaws out from a cold and windy winter, I’m looking forward to weeks outside, exploring. From road races to hiking; bike riding to patio seating at coffee shops, Colorado in the summer seems like it’s going to be a great place to live.

Jive's Coffee Lounge

On this particular cool, sunny Sunday afternoon, I’m blogging from Jive’s Coffee Lounge in Old Colorado City. The music is mellow, the coffee is good, and works by local artists hang on the walls. If you’re a stickler for customer service, Jive’s might not be your ideal local cafe, but if your priority is to drink locally and in a eccentric setting, Jive’s will be right up your ally.

A Call to Life

On my walk to Jives, I discovered creative boutique on West Colorado Avenue called A Call to Life. This shop now ranks high — along with another Old Colorado City boutique, Eve’s Revolution — in locally owned small town businesses that I should frequent.

Another favorite local business in Old Colorado City is Faerie Tales bakery; home of delicious cupcakes. I’ve yet to make it to Faerie Tales for brunch, but it’s on my to-eat-in-Colorado list. Don’t worry: I’ll let you know how it is.

Old Colorado City also hosts a First Friday ArtWalk from April through December. On the first Friday of each month from 5-8 p.m., and galleries and open studio spaces are available for walkers to visit, free of charge.

And because, let’s face it, who doesn’t love a good funnel cake, a massive turkey leg, or swarms of people, I’ve bookmarked Old Colorado City’s Territory Days – held over Memorial Day Weekend – as a not-to-miss local festival to share with my friends in the Midwest.

Do you know Old Colorado City? Are there other shops, restaurants or other local businesses I should explore here now that the weather is calling me to get out and blog about Colorado’s small towns?

Latte, photo taken with my iPhone4

Thursday was my last vacation day of the 2010 work year, and I spent the majority of it in Fredericktown, Missouri. After a visit to the family farm where I had a photo shoot for a story in a Missouri magazine about A Small Town Girl’s Guide and my family’s history here in Missouri, I made my way to Cowboy Coffee for wireless and a cup of coffee.

Entrance to Cowboy Coffee

Cowboy Coffee is on the main street in town, just off of Fredericktown’s historic Court House square. The shop has a very standard small town storefront, and its windows are filled with farm antiques and cowboy memorabilia.

Just inside the front doors sit a well-worn armchair and couch. A small section of plaster has fallen from the wall, revealing red brick and wooden beams underneath.

Abacus, photo taken with my iPhone4

Conversation is charmingly predictable; broaching topics like this week’s East Coast blizzard and gossip about local townspeople. The tables and chairs are mismatched and rustic, making the shop feel like an ambiguous blend of grandma’s supper table, a thrift store, and the home of an antique collector.

The coffee is surprisingly good, and my “short” latte was served in a mug that must have been at least 14 ounces.  I paid less than $4.00 for this humongous latte and an icing-covered cinnamon roll. Not a bad bang for the buck, in this small town girl’s humble opinion.

The folks working in the shop seem to know no strangers. Even people walking into the shop said hello to me as if they knew me personally. On a whole, it’s been a comfortable place to sit, have a meal, enjoy some coffee and get a little bit of work done.  If you’re in Fredericktown, Missouri and craving a cup of coffee, give this little locally-owned business a try.

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Cowboy Coffee is located at 125 East Main Street in Fredericktown, Missouri.

Driving through Mount Rainier National Forest

We spent significant vacation time driving. We drove to, up and around Mount Rainier. We continued on to Leavenworth. We drove from there to Snohomish and then on to the far western side of the Olympic Peninsula. We drove nearly 900 miles last week, and most of our driving was done in rural Washington State.

Each small town we drove through en route to Mount Rainier, Leavenworth, and the Olympic Peninsula was dotted with small metal buildings with signs reading “Drive-Thru Espresso” or “Espresso to Go”.

The trusty Subaru.

I wrote a post last year about an espresso shack in Farmington, Missouri. I thought the shack was a novelty until I traveled to Washington State. There were coffee shacks in every town along our drives.

Most towns had more coffee shacks than St. Louis neighborhoods have coffee shops. Many of the towns we drove through were no-stoplight towns filled with dilapidated homes and dimly lit mobile home parks. Money seemed like a scant resource in these communities, and yet many of the same towns had two espresso shacks.

An espresso shack sat in the parking lot of nearly every strip mall, convenience store and gas station we drove past. We made a game out of who could spot the espresso shack first, and we laughed at the ridiculous names assigned to some of the shacks.

If you’re wondering what an espresso shack looks like, your imagination is probably serving you well. Espresso shacks are small metal buildings similar to storage sheds – storage sheds with drive-thru windows.

I decided that it would be un-Washingtonian of me not to buy at least one latte from a Washington State drive-through espresso shack, so I set my standard high. I waited until I found the classiest, most upscale looking espresso shack I could find, and I pulled our little blue Subaru into its drive-thru for my very first Washington State Espresso to Go.

The coffee itself was nowhere near as interesting as the espresso shacks along our drives were. It was a good, albeit weak latte in a plain paper cup with a lid, and it helped give me the kick I needed to drive into Port Angeles for dinner that night. It’s not the coffee that I’ll remember from Seattle – it’s the drive-thru espresso shacks themselves.

Bauhaus Kaffee - Farmington, MO. Photo by smalltowngirl

A phone call woke me up too early on this warm Missouri Saturday morning. When the call ended, I couldn’t fall back asleep, so I found my way to my laptop and logged into twitter to pose the question, ”What’s your favorite thing about Saturdays?”

Because most of the responses I received can be summarized in four words: sleep, breakfast, family and coffee, Saturday morning seems like a fitting time of the week to entertain you with my Seattle coffee tales; the summation of my coffee- and espresso-drinking experiences in Seattle.

I could tell you about the fancy leaf the barista made in the frothy cap of my skinny latte in Queen Anne or about how Seattlites turn their espresso-macchiato-noses up at Starbucks, and then secretly dash in – when they think no one’s looking – to buy the green queen’s sugary coffee drinks.

Sure, I could tell you about how the list of coffee shops my friends recommended far exceeded the list of “things to do in Seattle” lists provided by the same friends, or I could tell you about ceramic cups and grungy baristas in elbow-to-elbow little cafes situated between boutiques and parking garages.

But honestly, aren’t those the coffee stories in every big American city these days?

What set Seattle’s coffee scene apart wasn’t anything in Seattle – it was the effect the Seattle coffee scene has had on the tiny towns outside of Seattle…(to be continued tomorrow.)

Picasso's Coffee House, photo by MilliGFunk

Work required me to travel to St. Charles yesterday, so I took advantage of the opportunity to have a quick cup of coffee in Historic Downtown St. Charles with my friend Elizabeth (@ekcutshall) and two of her three kiddos.

I went to college in a very old Louisiana river town, so I’m no stranger to rod iron railings and brick streets along a river. My college town’s historic district was three blocks long, though, while St. Charles’ brick streets continue for blocks and blocks, with beautiful buildings lining both sides of the street. Most of the buildings appeared to house shops, bars and restaurants, so I assume that an entire day could be spent window shopping and dining in Old St. Charles.

Apparently the Katy Trail –  a 300 mile bicycle path – runs through Old St. Charles, too, so a long bike ride, shopping and eating great food undoubtedly lies in my not-too-distant future.

Elizabeth and I met at Picasso’s Coffee House, St. Charles’ expert on the ‘art of coffee’,  on North Main Street. They exclusively serve coffee roasted in the St. Louis area, their breakfast menu is catered from LaBonne Bouchee Bakery, and they offer a full lunch menu from 11 a.m. – 3 p.m.  In the evenings, Picasso’s serves wines, beers, and its famous Masterpiece Martini. The cafe itself is clean but creative, artsy but warm.

I may be forgetting to mention the most important part about Picasso’s: it’s coffee. I ordered my usual skim latte, and I was impressed. The temperature was just right, the coffee was smooth, and the milk had great flavor.

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Picasso’s Coffee House is located at 101 North Main Street in Historic St. Charles, Missouri. To read more about St. Louis-area coffee shops, check out my October 2009 post on wifi and coffee in The ‘Lou. To learn more about Picasso’s, visit their website.

I’ve become so accustomed to seeing the same faces over and over again at work and in my tiny little town that I found myself buzzing from the energy of seeing so many different people come and go from the coffee shop today. I stopped into Sarah Carmody Photography to pick up an art print I won at the Maplewood Arts Walk a few months ago, where I had a good conversation about photography and music. My trip to the gallery was followed by a St. Louis Wine Club wine tasting at St. Louis Wine Cellars with Angela Ortmann of StL Wine Girl.

So much civilization in one day! I feel like the kid in The Nutcracker who falls asleep to exaggerated dreams of the big holiday party  hosted by her family that night…I’m sitting here in my eerily quiet house in the middle of the snowy woods of rural Missouri. My mind is slow, yawns bring sleepy tears to my eyes, and the day spent in “the city” seems no more real than dancing toy soldiers or life-sized rat kings.

Mocha, photo by smalltowngirl

I support local businesses where possible, and I also work remotely from locations around St. Louis regularly. I’m always watching for locally owned wi-fi hotpots where I’m welcome to sit with my laptop for 3-4 hours at a time, working.

I’ve fallen into the St. Louis Bread Company habit, and frankly, that depresses me. I don’t like their coffee that much, and the place just takes a little from my soul each time I work there, not unlike the way shopping in Wal-Mart kills my brain cells.

Exposed Brick, photo by smalltowngirl

Though it may at first seem unrelated, it was the Atomic Cowboy’s exposed brick walls last night at the #SeattleCatTweetup that made me realize just how much I hate working from Bread Company.

Not one to sit in discontent for long, I asked some St. Louis twitter friends today to make their suggestions for great wi-fi/work hotspots in and around St. Louis. As far as I know, all of these businesses are locally owned and have wi-fi. If you see a mistake here or you have additional suggestions, please leave a comment for me.

If you like this list, you should check out the list of St. Louis restaurants and bars twitter friends helped me generate in July.

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Kayak’s Coffee (on Skinker near Washington University)

Park Ave Coffee (Lafayette Square; open fairly late with great patio)

Bauhaus Kaffee (Farmington; serving Kaldi’s coffee)

Mississippi Mud (Cape Girardeau and St. Louis on Cherokee Street)

The Royale (South City)

Hartford Coffee (South of Tower Grove Park on Hartford Street)

Coffee Cartel (Central West End, Open 24 hours!)

Provisions (on Olive – This one was suggested, but I wouldn’t have thought of it as a work/wifi spot. Can anyone confirm or deny this is a potential laptop-friendly wifi spot?)

Murdoch Perk (closed Mondays; on Murdoch btwn S. Kingshighway and Hampton in Southampton)

La Dolce Via (closed Mondays and Tuesdays; on Taylor in the Grove/Forest Park Southeast)

Northwest Coffee (two locations; Central West End and Clayton)

Companion (Central West End, Clayton and Ladue)

Wired Coffee (Sunset Hills)

Foundation Grounds (Maplewood)

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(Thanks to @michaeltomko, @poppymom, @Lisa_S_47, @threefourteen, @meporter, @cjonescgp, @elsicomoro, @jrobmartin, @allabuzz and @theroyale for recommendations and more information about these businesses)

You’ll notice that there is a mobile home in the background of this drive-through coffee shop. Fittingly, Espresso to Go is actually a metal shack. Here’s to small town life.

Shack, photo by smalltowngirl

Kaldi’s is one of two coffee companies in St. Louis that I’m aware of that roasts its own beans (Northwest Coffee is the other). Kaldi’s also has delictable sweet treats and lots of vegetarian food options for full meals.

I ordered a black bean burrito and cozied into a table near a window, ready to upload and edit the 200+ photos I’d taken at work that morning in Shaw Park. When the barista called my name to give me my burrito, this is it said:

My Name is Not Alyssa, photo by smalltowngirl

For those of you who know me only as smalltowngirl or @milligfunk, I’ll fill you in on a secret; my name is not Alyssa.

That said, the coffee, the burrito and the cookie I got for desert (a giant one with chocolate chunks) were all good, and I really liked the no-wireless-internet, authentic-coffee-shop feel of Kaldi’s.

Kudos to local, independent businesses, even if they decorate their burritos with the wrong name.

The coffee shop is lovely, with refreshingly happy and down to earth staff (no snobbish yuppy baristas here). There is a quirky turquoise mural of a tree with white flowers blossoming on the wall, and mismatched (but coordinated) upholstery covers high-backed chairs.

The pear and brie sandwich I had for lunch was lovely (fair warning though – it was onion heavy, though the onions were raw and easily removable). The iced mocha wasn’t bad either. Foundation Grounds gets brownie points for using biodegradable plastic cups, made from corn.

In the cold case, I found Kambucha, organic juices, Honest Tea, and Stonyfield Farm yogurt – a fairly forward-thinking collection of foods and drinks for this part of the country.

To top off my visit to Foundation Grounds, I overheard someone speaking Mandarin Chinese, and turned to find a husband and wife speaking Chinese to one another. The husband, a St. Louis-born acupuncturist and his wife had just moved back to St. Louis three days ago from years in Seattle and Asia.

His Chinese was far more fluent than my own (embarrassingly rusty) Chinese is, but it was so uplifting to meet another person who has moved back “home” to this part of the country after seeing the world in hopes of contributing something to the communities we grew up in.

Today’s coffee shop encounter is a reminder that when things happen (like servers crashing), there’s often something better in store. It’s been a rough last week for me, but with my hope and optimism restored, I’m looking forward to what the rest of this week holds.