One thing often leads to another...A good thing leading to another good thing is great. Last Sunday we were loading up on caffeine (and carbs) and made a first-time visit to Matchbox Coffee Collective in NE Minneapolis. We shared (sort of) a slice of cranberry bread and a delightful savory scone. One of the workers mentioned that the baked goods came from May Day Coffee.
Monday and Tuesday Linda vetoed my request to track down the great carbs but made my day on Wednesday.
Location, Background and Name...
Located near 34th and Bloomington, May Day, like Matchbox is not your contemporary coffee shop, never to be confused with Starbucks, Caribou or Dunn Brothers. This would fit right into the 1960s West Bank by the U. May Day puts their hard work into great coffee, food and baked goods. Clearly this is a community cornerstone, impossible to replicate.
The nearby Powderhorn Park is the site of the annual Minneapolis May Day Celebration. May Day is an ancient northern celebration of spring. Perhaps our selection of a very mild January weekday to celebrate was a May Day warm up performance. We did not sing and dance as is the holiday custome. May Day also references international worker's day and the Chicago's Haymarket Affair. Minnesota has a long history of worker's and populist movements. It's popular now to speak poorly of the labor movement but it's that to which we owe 40 hour weeks, workplace safety and benefits. Our daily lives, our experiences in food are most often embraced in corporate entities. We like real peoples' stories. On our next visit we'll pursue a deeper history.
The pursuit of good food and coffee sometimes leads to treasures other than food and coffee. Powderhorn is an active community, evolving and developing, working through challenges as a community. We scratched on that commitment to conversation, discussion and compromise at our recent Matchbox Coffee visit. A gem found in this search was a community based photographic effort to document the daily lives of a neighborhood. It's really good. Check out www.powderhorn365.com.Food & Coffee...and Treats (of course)...
My first choice was the breakfast burrito. The very polite counter person
We started with a cold brew coffee and a mocha, both excellent May Day Coffee features fair trade organic coffee. The chocolate croissant was as good as can be, delicately layered, very buttery with an adequate amount of rich dark chocolate. We shared. Our croissant litmus test is Trung Nam French Bakery on University Avenue in St. Paul. This one passed.
The large serving of mixed greens was very fresh, a bit over-dressed. Next time we'd order the dressing on the side.
The quiche was a very thick and airy on a buttery crust.
While sharing the quiche Linda started to laugh and looked at the table
behind me. I turned and saw a young woman with a bite of Cinnamon roll
on her fork and a smile that did not end as she said to anyone listening
"This is so good." I suggested she share with others. She laughed but
did not share... but I think she would have. It's a very friendly
place.It's nice. It's community...
Customers were a mix. A daycare provider had six or seven little kids properly under control. They were very polite and made the rounds of the nearby tables. Unlike many coffee shops people were actually chatting, having conversations. Older grey-haired couples from the neighborhood, young couples clearly in love, friendships being renewed and made and individuals all casually acknowledging each other and sharing space at the limited number of tables. It was not like Starbucks where 15 people with PC take up all 15 tables. WIFI is available and a few people were working/playing on their computers but none of them had that glued-to-the-screen zombie look.
May Day Coffee is part of the community. Our goal with Mariannne's Kitchen was to create the same friendly place, neighbors enjoying good food and with a good daily dose of heartfelt conversation, laughter and caring for each other.
No comments:
Post a Comment