11.12.2009

St. Elmos Coffee Pub - Alexandria Part 1


The Kleiner and the Kleinette went to the Arlington Costco to get a copy of the Audacity to Win by David Plouffe signed (and to do the sample circuit...) and decided to bring their laptops and explore a hood they had not yet sampled, Del Ray in Alexandria.  A quick search for wifi/Del Ray alerted them to what seemed to be a great spot -St. Elmos Coffee Pub.

The St. Elmo's Coffee Pub is adorable and for the most part typifies the kind of coffee place that I would love to see open on Mt. Pleasant Street or somewhere in Columbia Heights.  First of all, Mt. Vernon Street, is adorable.  Filled with spas, quirky shops and art stores that encourage patrons to make art in their midst, it feels like a little artists colony.  St. Elmos Coffee Pub fits in well on the street, painted blue with white cloud sculptures with pigs flying on them adorn the big bay windows that face out onto the street.  Inside, the coffee 'pub' is spacious with couches, large tables with chairs a la Pain Quotidiene, a variety of vintage cushioned chairs and a coffee bar.  The walls are brightly colored in orange and marbled green and each one features a different artist showcasing water colors, pop-arty and photography for sale. The one strange thing was that they were playing opera on NPR which lent itself to a very quiet atmosphere.  Families, couples, friends and singles gather here to work on their computers, read novels, study and catch up.  There is community library in its own separate section of the coffee pub.  Finally - on Friday and Saturday nights - live free music!  Fantastic.

I had a gingerbread latte and the Kleiner had an iced White Chocolate Mocha that he found to be delicious and over Starbucks par.  I also liked the gingerbread latte, but, would like to try the vanilla toffee latte next time or one of the many other creative drinks on offer.  One menu offered daily drink concoction specials, while the rest of the menu was a typical coffee house menu, lattes, espressos, cappucinos, cafe au laits, teas all reasonably priced at Starbucks or just below Starbucks levels.  The bakery looked delicious, many muffin flavors, papusas (this is Northern Virginia), quiches, sandwiches.  Biscotti is present in abundance and the flavors included Pumpkin (this is November.... no menu of anything is complete without something squash infused).

St. Elmos is an adorable place to spend some time on a weekend afternoon, especially after a quick trip to Costco, however, I must give a word of warning.  They offer free wifi, but it has an extremely frustrating level of connectivity which makes it difficult to plan on coming to St. Elmo's to do any sort of web related work.  This may be a 'my computer' thing, but, I witnessed 'could not be loaded pages' all around me.  That said, I really wish someone would carbon copy this place with slightly livelier music right onto Mt. Pleasant Street - given the crowds at Heller's, I'm sure it would be packed :)

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