Two boys from Philadelphia paid me a visit a few days ago.
We strolled through the upscale Beacon Hill neighborhood and walked over the bridge along the Charles River, leaving downtown Boston and over into Cambridge.
We decided to sit at Peet's after all that walking to just talk and people watch. I know I've said this before but I feel it deserves another mention - Peet's is the coffee place that originally inspired the birth of Starbucks. They opted to keep it really low key though, which is why they are not as successful with world domination as the evil empire. At this point you will call me out on my hypocrisy, "but Zihan, you clearly visited a Starbucks as evidenced in the very first photo in this post. That green straw is unmistakable." Good point!
As much as I come off as a hypocrite I also have a reasonable explanation for it. Allow me to refer to a conversation I had with Naveen earlier in the day where the topic of coffee came up (my brother and I are former Starbucks baristas, while Naveen is a former barista of The Coffee Bean) and I stressed on the fact that it's hard to find a traditional coffee shop nowadays because everywhere you turn sits a Starbucks. In fact, there are about four on my street alone, and three in the mall in the same wing. You can't escape it. And so, feeling lethargic and a little desperate one results to paying four dollars for a cup of coffee.
To put it into perspective, there are only five Peet's stores in the whole state of Massachusetts.
Starbucks on the other hand, can be best illustrated with this accurate observation by comedian Lewis Black.
