The San Francisco Coffee Company

Shortly before starting my second winter season in Bavaria, a new coffee shop opened up, smack dab in the middle, of the village [pardon my Urban Dictionary English talk]. I can see the coffee shop right from my corner office window, a block away. It reminds me of the decade I spent in LA (another name for Los Angeles in the Urban Dictionary) in Southern California with frequent work trips to San Francisco in Northern California. I am happy to be reminded of where I lived in the Southern California beach scenes — Manhattan Beach, Playa del Ray, Redondo Beach, Santa Monica — where I lived some sixty years ago. Especially, for this Snowbird.

[More Urban Dictionary talk.] A Snowbird is an American idiom for a person escaping the cold winter in snowbound northern States for warmer southern States. I fled both the snow in Bavaria, Germany, and the heat and humidity in the summer of Florida. The Covid pandemic turned all that topsy-turvy into a state of utter disorder and confusion for travelling Snowbirds.

Christl and I walk into the Coffee Shop with my Starbucks mug and ask for a “medium” fill and “butter brezen.” These are large pretzels with butter, pronounced bootter. The proprietress speaks German, Russian, and English. There is no G.O.R.P. to go along with coffee. Another Urban Dictionary entry for “Good Old Raisins and Peanuts.” However, there are delicious looking bagel sandwiches.

The San Francisco Coffee Company, in the middle of our village, brightens up our Winter season. We look forward to many more visits. It is an itsy-bitsy [my last reference to the Urban Dictionary] part of the America we miss so much .