Dan's Papers - July 13, 2007

This is no tempest in a teapot. It's a real coffee storm here on the North Fork. Apparently we have grounds for lots of coffee klatches since two, soon to be three, Starbucks have opened here. One is in Southold, another in Greenport and a third will be perking up in Mattituck.

Now I'm not going around asking people what cafe/fast-food place/restaurant has the best coffee. Though in truth, senior coffee at a certain Mattituck establishment will do just fine for me, thank you.

But then, my tastes are frequently plebian and I make no apologies. Actually my coffee-love came rather late in life. Certainly on the other side of 40. Before that I was strictly a tea drinker. Six or seven cups a day, no milk in it, no sugar either.

Here's what I'd like to know. How did coffee drinking become so important to us? Nobody opens a cafe to sell milk, for example. Or cream soda. Not even apple juice.

I remember when I started drinking coffee regularly. It had to do with camping. You know, where you drive someplace with a load of wood, lots of plastic, and bug spray. I came late to camping, too. Also on the other side of 40. But I say without reservation that my years of camping provided joy rarely equaled, and coffee played its role.

Each camping morning my husband would build a fire and start the coffee. Still in a sleeping bag, I'd smell that coffee, unzip the bag, and stumble over to the fire. The person who never, ever, cooks at home would hand me a cup of coffee and together we'd drink in the morning as it arrived on Lake Ontario, the Chesapeake Bay or Maine's Casco Bay. There was nothing to say but thank you - for our campsite ur coffee.

Other coffee-drinkers on the North Fork? You might talk with Greenport's Diane Amussen. Most days Diane arrives at her Mattituck job with a cup of coffee - or even a thermos of the stuff. He he claims.

But Diane also enjoys a cup of coffee after dinner - at home or at a friend's home. Though "not that demitasse business," she said. A good honest he craves.

And that craving developed some time ago when Diane lived in Washington, D.C. Frequently Diane's job took her to Bethesda, Maryland. She'd take public transportation from Washington and arrive in Bethesda early enough to establish a pleasant routine. She'd stop in a little cafe, order coffee and a roll and enjoy them both with the morning paper. Diane didn't mention whether the president was Johnson, Carter or Reagan. But she did remember the coffee. Coffee, a roll and the she said.

They still do, Diane. If you read the news on a computer, the coffee and t the same.

Stop in a North Road deli and meet Clifford Utz, a Southold one-a-day man. A retired physical education teacher (Southold and Greenport), Cliff and his wife Jane have their daily one-cup of coffee early, about 6:30 a.m. With the coffee there's a bagel and cream c nd butter.

Cliff began his friendship with coffee in college but he's quick to say the friendship doesn't include instant d stuff."

Each winter Cliff and Jane spend some time in the southwest. Their early coffee routine remains the same though in the great outdoors, Cliff prepares the coffee himself and the bagel is replaced with a piece of sun drenched fruit. But as they sit outside, drinking their coffee and marveling at the scenery, I bet they're miss a little.

Guess it's obvious. They've got an awful lot of coffee in Brazil - and we've an awful lot of coffee drinkers on the North Fork. Oh, there's so much to drink in our lives. Those eight glasses of water we're supposed to down each day, and the three or four glasses of milk, plus North Fork wine with dinner and an occasional nge juice.

But there's always time for coffee. Drink it alone at the kitchen table and it is a restful solace. Drink it with a friend at a restaurant or even at that same kitchen table and it becomes the pathway to another's heart.