Coffee in North Austin

In the Phoenix Airport, a sprawling enterprise taking up way too much space? With a flight layover, I stopped long enough to get some fancy coffee. It was done with a cutting board and shot glass filled with then-trendy, Topo Chico. A gentle cleanse for the pallet before and after an expertly pulled shot of espresso. Flavor was OK, presentation was 8 out 10, but I tend to favor a slightly darker roast for an espresso shot. Excellent by airport standards, so-so by coffee-cognoscenti.

Last month, as a plus one? To me, this wasn’t “North Austin” as I remembered it, this was the shoulder of the fabled Hill Country, former ranch lands and small plots for farms, scrub oak and the invasive cedar, all of which was being plowed-under and paved-over for “progress.”

Passed an Apple campus, passed Oracle, a Tesla showroom.

At the one place, the employees were proper: young, idealistic, tattooed. Off-brand coffee shop with a relaxed afternoon clientele on a slow Saturday.

I pulled out an iPad, thought about something I was going to do, then spun off in a totally different direction.

Coffee in North Austin

The problem is how to frame the outlook for next year, 2020, in astrological terms. While I tend to not think in terms of audience, I do — in this instance — want to consider a couple of pointers.

It’s the august Austin Astrology Association. From various speaking engagements in my past, I know that some of the people will be experts, some will think they are well-versed, and some will be “I think I‘m a Scorpio, what does that mean for me?”

During a technology conference, I sat next to a date and watched as she totally didn’t understand half of what was being said. Talk went right over her head. Not a techie, for sure.

“Yeah, I didn’t get that part.”

So the frame, came to me sitting in that North Austin coffee shop, staring at a half demitasse of espresso, hang the tale around dates we all know and recognize.

Coffee in North Austin

The coffee was good. Not great, but independent coffee shops are a tough gig, at best. More a labor of love than a valid revenue stream. I might be wrong about that, but my experience with both business and as a patron of coffee shops? I would reiterate my message, more a labor of love than a valid revenue stream.

Didn’t stop the coffee from being good, and in the quiet, I had a chance to come up with innovative frame for next year.

astrofish.net/travel