Hello! I'm Kate. And I need some help.
I'm trying to make one of my settings a pretentious coffee shop. But like, the EPITOME of pretentious coffee shops. The ones that charge $3.50 for a small coffee. What I'm looking for is any detail you can think of to make this place ooze yuppie. Wall color, name, background music, anything you want to give me. Exaggerate! Please!
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3,447 / 50,000
Nov 9, 2008 - 22 41
There's several here in Los Angeles. Here's a web site you can look at, get a good idea:
lamillcoffee.com
They even had a local TV personality come in and do a whole half hour show on the place. This was on PBS of course.
They also have this strange anti-gravity coffee pot thing that people go crazy over.
Have fun looking at that.
- Scott Mercer
21,425 / 50,000
Nov 10, 2008 - 09 35
Aah, one of my favorite places! I actually do some of my novel writing at my local pretentious coffee shop, how awful is that!
For me, the key elements of a way-too-snooty coffee place are:
Handwritten menus that imply they're going to change at any moment
Coffee Mugs that were probably bought at a garage sale but add to the 'we're not starbucks' air
A tiny, tiny stage that can fit 2 acoustic musicians as long as they're bulimic and play the flute (preferably a piccolo) because they probably wouldn't be able to fit a guitar up there
2 floors is a huge plus
A patio with a fireplace would be nice
And the place has to serve food that wouldn't be out of place on a Sherpa's menu. Think of using arbitrary foreign substitutes for simple seasonings like oregano or salt, and instead of spinach use organically grown Tibetan daikon.
50,570 / 50,000
Nov 13, 2008 - 12 07
Hand sack rubbed concrete wals (Fills in the air bubbles)
school surplus tables and chairs
overstuffed chairs and couches
a fireplace
Old books on shelves on the walls
art for sale
loft with open railing and stairs
a brick wall behind the counter
0 / 50,000
Nov 26, 2008 - 12 09
In my town there used to be a coffee shop called Epitome, but it wasn't very pretentious. Aristotle's was also in my town (they're both gone now) but probably isn't nearly as pretentious as you want. I'm thinking busboys and poets, a coffee shop in Arlington, Virginia. (I think it's in Arlington.) it has couches and tables, poetry readings every night, a bunch of stupid signs, and a liberal book store in the coffee shop. A liberal bookstore, with a ladder. It took up one corner. It cost like 5 dollars for a small coffee, and the wait was 30 minutes for a small coffee. You could go and argue with people about things, buy from the bookstore, or just surf the internet. It was THE quintessential pretentious coffee shop.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/gog/restaurants/busboys-and-poets,1116164....
http://www.arlingtonunwired.com/Places-BusboysandPoets.shtml