Gallery Cafe

Ever since I first started working from home, I’ve been a patron of the local neighborhood coffee spot. There are several around here… but the closest one to me is Gallery Cafe.

I’ve been getting coffee here for a good while, primarily on the weekends. But since the work-at-home phase, I’ve been going here almost twice daily: once in the morning around 9:00 AM, and once again in the afternoons around 3:00 PM.

Instead of visiting Greg and Trent at Artisan, the nice folks at Gallery Cafe have been my caffeine dealers. For some reason, I held off adding Gallery Cafe to my blog. Which is weird – I’ve been coming here for a really, really long time. But it wasn’t until the past few months that I made any real effort to say hi to the folks behind the counter.

When ordering coffee, I always feel like I’m holding up the line if I try to “chat” at the register. And more often than not, everyone’s rushing about trying to get food orders ready, custom drink orders, etc. But over the past few months, a few folks began memorizing my drink order (large coffee with a doubleshot of espresso in it) and I began asking everyone’s names.

And so, as I’ll be moving back into the office soon… about a week ago, I asked some folks if they wouldn’t mind me taking a photo. Since Gallery Cafe has been a staple part of almost every day for the past three months… it felt like it deserved a blog entry.

Interior view of the place.

In the back, there’s this great coffee roaster. One of these days, I need to catch them right before they roast up some coffee and grab some video of the thing in action. It’s pretty neat to watch.

In addition to coffee, Gallery Cafe has a ton of things to order – smoothies, breakfast (all day), sandwiches, wraps. As you would expect with a name like Gallery Cafe, the food items are appropriately titled. You’ve got breakfast sandwiches with names lke Dali, KAndinsky and Gauguin. Some of the sandwich names are pretty inspired:

Warhol: Imported ham. Your fifteen minutes of food.

Picasso: Homemade tongol tuna salad prepared with roasted red peppers. Wipes away the blues. Period!

This is Holly, who often has the espresso going before I even have any money out. Out of everyone, I think I end up talking with Holly the most, day to day.

The daily horoscope is usually taped up by the register. I’m not a big horoscope reader, but I can’t help but check the thing every time I walk up. It’s a great thing too, as I’ve never become impatient if everyone’s busy getting orders done. If I’m at the counter and I have to wait a bit, I just start reading.

Kerry and Diana. I believe Diana was the first person I really started to talk to (and I think she may have been the first one to recite my drink order from memory). Kerry was the one I first asked for a photo, and she ended up warning the others.

Blurry shot of the coffee.

The owner of Gallery, Jeff, is also one of the owners of Filter – just down the street. Every time I see anything from Filter in here, it reminds me of how interconnected everything in this neighborhood is… and I feel lucky to share in some small part of that.