My Love Affair with Tryst

This is my third consecutive day at Tryst, so it seems only right that I give a "hell yeah!" to it's existence as a damn-fabulous coffee shop and a place I could visit nearly every single freaking day if I wanted to.

Let me tell you--When I moved here from Seattle five years ago, I swore that if I couldn't find a respectable place to call my 'coffee home', I was gonna get the hell out of this crummy town before my three-month employment commitment was over. No joke... good coffee is much more important to us Northwesterners than you could possibly imagine... more important than some silly JOB. As luck would have it, I squatted with friends on Biltmore and Columbia in my first week and my tryst with Tryst (could I avoid the pun?) began. It was exactly the magical, caffeinated dream I sought: Cozy ambiance; a perfect work space for students and writers; a neighborhood joint; and damn fucking good coffee.

Here are the top ten reason I love Tryst:
1. Cappuccinos
2. The Portia sandwich (heavan)
3. Everything served with Nutella
4. The Cuban Coffee
5. That orange juice and cardamom infusion tea thing (so classy!)
6. Chai Tea Latte (the best in the city; only the fallen Sparky's could challenge it)
7. Iced Green Tea (garnished with a piece of pineapple)
8. Lemon Poppyseed waffle
9. All the other waffles
10. I can sit for as long as I goddamn please

Despite your pissyness about Tryst---how damn impossible it is to get a seat, confusing table service, how easy it is to feel ignored or forgotten, and your issues with it being "sceney"--I will argue that you need to get your issues and your shit together.

My tips: Go during the day, know what you want, waive to your waiter when you want something else or the check (they prefer it to reading your mind), and smile. (It's hard for the waiters, too... just so you know.)

Here's an apt pledge from their website:
"The French have their cafes, the English their pubs, the Greeks their tavernas and bodegas; what do we have in America? Somewhere between home and work we all need a ‘third place’ to go -- where we can escape the stresses of everyday responsibilities but still connect (with high speed internet access if you choose) to the outside world. Tryst is defining that third place for us."

In case you didn't realize the additional and crucial (in my case) true brilliance of Tryst COFFEE: Tryst serves Counter Culture Coffee, which is one of the most respected coffee rosters on the East Coast that delivers to all the top coffee counters in D.C.--such as Murky, Big Bear and Dolcezza. Counter Culture epitomizes sustainable and artisanal coffee as a company motto. David Fritzler of Tryst works diligently to select the best crafted coffees for your Tryst consumption, which are brewed to perfection every time. And lets talk dirty about the espresso: the perfect pull of the shot, savory and sweet creme, the exact temperature for silky-smooth froth in the milk-based drinks... like a tall, hot drink of milk that you never saw coming because you had no clue what real, sultry, naughty coffee pleasure was in the first place....

Plus, I love the staff! Can I give a shout out to Aya, David, Kat, Stephanie, Orlando, and Jocelyn! They've been there at least five years or more--as long as I can remember--and they know their shit.

So don't crowd my space, but let's give some proper cred to Tryst.

Cork on 14th

By the way.... I was buying my cat all-natural food and took a little peak into the new Cork Wine Bar, which I've been waiting for forever, to find all the paper gone from the windows and a seriously cozy, brick and tin/steel interior. I'm so excited! I heard Ron Tanaka, former sous chef of CityZen, was to add to the deliciousness. Turns out the place opens tomorrow night--ahem, I didn't get any word from the Cork newsletter!--and could take some well-timed reservations for a table. To somewhat fill the "neighborhood bar" niche so desperately missing in D.C., will they give preference to those living within a two block radius? Let's hope so.

The Mysterious 98 Bus

Did anyone know this fucking bus existed??

I was hauling ass to one of those new wine bars to pop up in the city to meet a friend for a much needed after "work" drink, when I decided that there was no way in hell I was going to make it without some kind of motor vehicle assistance. Seeing as I had only $40 dollars to withdraw from my account, a cab was totally out of the question. It was raining, I was wearing dam cute shoes, my hair would be ruined in a matter of minutes, so my only option was to run over to U street and see if I could catch one of those buses I think heads straight out all the way to, like, North Capital.

When I get to the bus stop, I realize I'm a dime short for the new fair hike! I can either walk away defeated, the way I usually do when I don't want to ask people for money or beg to get on the bus, or I could beg to get on the bus for a dime short. The rain is wet. I decide to beg.

Then suddenly a small bus without any header, any bus number, and without the typical full-and-sweaty bus look of the typical U Street kind pulls up and lets me in. Something is odd, I think. I ask the driver if he heads across U Street. Yes, he says. For 25 cents. I'm thinking, I'm already ten cents short, and now there's some 25 cent surcharge? No... 25 cents is the fare, he says. That's all.

After some investigation, I learn this is the 98 bus, the Adams Morgan-U Street link, which has been running since at least last spring and covers the span of Adams Morgan from the Woodly Park station through U Street to 9th Street NW. FOR A QUARTER. So basically, I could hit all the good spots to get my drink on without a cab for A QUARTER. And I got a transfer.

Which is good, because it turns out that I was at the OTHER wine bar, not the one where my friend sat waiting for 30 minutes while I sat and got drunk waiting for her. Good thing I could hop on the link and head in the other direction.

State of My Life Address

Sitting at Tryst today, again, drinking bloody good coffee to finish up some writing before going to the gym and then heading out to hear Bush go on about loving america. Which reminds me... I remember a particularly ridiculous Bush S.O.T.U.A. day when I cried a lot at a bar after drinking many martini's. It was, in all truth, only somewhat connected to what was being said on television, therefore I had disappointment coming from many directions and suffered an all-around particularly pathetic state-of-my-life. Remembering this embarrassing little affair (thank god the bartender who handed me tissues that night soon left said bar, taking with him the only witness account!), it's hard to not look in the mirror each time this year and consider the present and how it compares to this day, one year ago. Let's see... unemployment has gone up, economic outlooks are spotty at best, but growth levels are good and could expand exponentially in short time. Morale is sensational all things considering, enterprising and educational investments are up, technical and trade stocks continue to rise. Personal investors are seeing the payoff of a delightfully less-bitchy me. Health and haircut are the best they've been in ages. All in all, a pretty fucking great State of My Life. Aside from Bush, of course.