I know I should have better things to do than post today but this spoke to my heart:
In my specific experience the coffee wars of the mid 00's embodied the dichotomy in my life between work and play. I worked near the original Blue Bottle, and would sometimes take half hour coffee breaks to stand in line for that perfect espresso (latte really, but espresso sounds better). I lived, and spent my time in the mission, where I was a regular at Ritual. To this day, I associate Ritual with hours of carefree people watching, internet surfing, pretending to read, and tutoring high school students, and Blue Bottle with escaping my natural light-free cubicle. They shoulda interviewed me.
