I made my annual pilgrimage to Green Lake, Wisconsin over the weekend and had a remarkable time. This time, I even found great coffee.
For seven consecutive years I have flown into Chicago every September to spend a weekend with some of my esteemed colleagues I used to work with at Star Alliance. One of them, Denny, has a house on Green Lake and the weekend includes great food and drink, water sports, and most importantly, catching up on eachother’s lives.
All the usual elements were present this year. Moscow Mules and pizza from Lou Malnati’s upon arrival. A fish fry on Friday night. Fun out on the lake. Chicago-style hot dogs.
But this year I wanted to add one more element to the weekend: great coffee. Denny’s coffee is actually just fine, but just as I search for Mexican Food when I visit new places, I now also search for really great coffee.
Now Ripon, Wisconsin is a town of 7,800. I figured there would be a coffee shop there and I figured correctly. It was called Mugs Coffeehouse and was EXACTLY what I was looking for. The wood floors, plush couches, and fireplace was great. But the coffee was even better.
The fair trade Collectivo coffee was roasted in small batches and had a tremendous flavor. My cappuccinos were marvelous and I even brought a bag of Ethiopian beans home.
To be clear, I’m not calling small towns in America backwards in any way. However, I’ve visited 47 states including many small towns that dot American from sea to shining sea. Good coffee is rarely an issue in California or the Pacific Northwest, but can be elusive as you drive east.
But more and more I am seeing specialty coffee shops like Mug spring up in small town America. That should be celebrated.
CONCLUSION
Coffee is meant to be enjoyed in a comfortable venue, slowly, and in a real cup, not styrofoam or paper. Now I have another reason to look forward to returning to Green Lake each year!
Matt, come back to Hawaii. Not only do we have great coffee, but our Mexican food scene is getting exciting. If you know where to look, that is 😉
I look forward to it!
Compared to what you drink in Bali, how is it?
Bali was the best coffee of the year.
Go to Vietnam… OOOOOOFFFFF! <3
I visit Wisconsin often and search out good coffee, as it is harder to find coffee traveling East the BBQ gets better going East.
Newberry, MI, (pop. 1436, in the center of the Upper Peninsula) has a lovely little coffee shop, close to the sign asking you to report your moose sightings.
My experience is that there are cases for a small town:
1. There is a local roaster in town.
2. There is not. Or if it’s after like 5PM.
If you are in a town with a local roaster, yay!, the coffee tends to be exquisite. I once lived in middle-of-nowhere in northern Nevada, and I found this roaster coffee store in Carson City. It quickly became my Saturday morning ritual to get a cup of their pourover. Goodness it was good.
However, most of the cases, there are not, and the best you can do is, smile, Starbuck’s. I became loyal to the chain after my NV experience. Sure, their coffee is very much unexceptional. However, if you are doing a roadtrip somewhere, most of the time you get to choose between a Starbuck’s and gas station coffee. And complain all you want, but gas station coffee is…
I live in and love the Midwest. You would be surprised how much great coffee, pastries, food you can get here. There are amazing small towns that have historical little places ran by several generations of families that serve great food.