About Café Quest

“Way leads on to way”, a girl who became a good friend of mine came to say. 

That led me on to find the Robert Frost poem, “The Road Not Taken“, from whence that expression came, and that in turn led on reading what it took M. Scott Peck to publish a book, “The Road Less Traveled“, without actually reading it but instead leading me on to an epiphany of my own that you can find yourself, truth and your own “way” simply through sharing and caring with the people you dare to meet on your travels, and without the need for religion or politics to tell or sell you the truth.

However it has been in looking back on the truth learned in my travels this way, as blogged about in Matt’s Tale on people met on The Road from Camelot to Canterbury – both back then, way before then and right now – that I realised a common thread sneaking in to some accounts.

It had happened almost without me noticing it – but a friend’s posting on Facebook about “4 coffees per day perking women up” was when I suddenly realised what had also been helping to provide me with that glorious edge in finding some of my best friends and most favourite people, and above all hearing about their discoveries over a good brew.

That thread was one about good cafés, and now seemed to be calling out to me with a subtle request to acknowledge the spirit of the café , a sometimes quiet and oftimes bubbly place that has crept its way into my life over two decades – subfusing me with not only varying types, degrees and grades of coffee but at least sources of some great conversations with people I would not otherwise have met if the space itself did not have “it” as much as my beloved beverage and a good barista to make it.

So, thenceforth, I have realised the need for acknowledgement of those great places I’ve been and seen, as well as the need for a new quest – possibly even as important as the need to find sense for self and sensibility – to see if there is that one place, that bastion of all that is true and good beyond just a smell that wakes you up in the morning. A Mecca for mocha, a heaven for that hazelnut-infused caramel latte, a place that serves latte as an art form (and art in it) equally as well as a shot of espresso with a dash of milk on the side (or in it, and known as a macchiato). Or even just a straight, stand-up espresso bar – such as they have throughout Italy.

Yet, it’s something else about such a place that goes well beyond just the beverage, to it being or seeming to be that one true place where one can meet another impartially in sharing an unlicensed addiction, giving one that something extra that makes the place itself a hit and even an attraction. There can be only one, surely, café that we all remember in the beginning, middle or end of our road – for some reason or other, so let’s share those stories and why those places are so precious to us.

BUT, wait one, is there that one Ultimate Café.  If so, where, where in the world is it?  So, to see if I can find it, thus begins: the Café Quest….