A Cafe in South London I Haven’t Been To!!

Date: 11-10-2011

Drink: Venti Green Tea

Food: White Chocolate and Raspberry Mini Cake

a sprightly Simeon!

So, on our way home from some lessons in Dulwich, we decided to drive into Croydon instead of all the way down to Sutton, especially since we are now staying in an area called Wallington, which is much closed to Croydon than to Sutton. Can I say? Bad mistake. I’ve heard people say Croydon is ridiculous, and we’ve driven into Croydon before to drop off friends at hotel, etc. But seriously, Croydon is ridiculous. We drove around in circles for hours with Sims yelling at me because I should supposedly be able to tell where I’m going since I had the map right in front of me (on the phone’s GPS). The only problem was, the phone doesn’t tell you which streets are one-way, and the directions were taking us the wrong way on streets and such. And the Starbucks cafe listing on the phone didn’t mention it was inside the mall!

 

Ok, this mall was seriously pathetic. We walked into what looked like the main entrance, which actually just happened to be the entrance to Debenham’s, and this store (Debenham’s) was three storeys high and had no exit to the mall proper! Well, it did, on the second storey. And of course, because there was actually no way feasible way to get into the mall, the main portion of the mall was empty. You could hear a pin drop. Of course, I’m comparing this mall to Bellevue Square, which is a pathetic comparison. We walked around the entire mall until we finally happened upon the Starbucks, which was tucked away in a tiny corner and pretty much had the entire mall’s concentration of people crowded into its cafe. Parking was expensive, and we really didn’t have time to enjoy our green tea. That said, Simeon does look rather happy, doesn’t he? Or maybe it’s just the hair.

 

By the way, I don’t think the Starbucks cafes in the States (at least not the ones we’ve been to) have the White Chocolate and Raspberry Mini Cake. Oh my God they are good! Very dangerous. But very yummy. I will be taking care to avoid those in the future, because it would be very easy to get addicted to those! YUMMM!!!!

 

ps, if the paragraphs don’t look the same, don’t ask me why. they’re actually exactly the same in the HTML, so yeah… wordpress kind of acts strangely sometimes…!!!

hidden away in the corner of the mall

 

Thoughts and Reviews in Surbiton

We’re sitting here at the Surbiton Starbucks in South London, a cafe I logged almost a year ago, on 15 December 2010: https://starbuckproject.wordpress.com/2010/12/25/surbiton-high-street-kingston-upon-thames-england/ . Whenever we come to London, we inevitably go back to our normal haunts: the Starbucks on the Surbiton High Street, and the Starbucks on the Sutton High Street. And since I generally only post when we go to a new cafe, and even then sporadically thanks to hectic-crazy-dancer-lifestyle, one may get an uneven picture as to our patronage of Starbucks. But there are definite advantages to going back to the same cafe. Like, for instance, the baristas start to get to know us. Even in England.

At the Sutton Starbucks, for instance, there is one barista in particular who recognizes us from a long time ago. A couple of trips back, maybe in January, we came in during a slow spell, and we chatted for a bit about the difference between American and British cafes. Like, for instance, that fact that British Starbucks give you ALL upgrades on your drinks for free. That means free shots and free syrup. So our Venti Quod Vanilla Latte is the same price as a Venti Latte when we pay for it with our card. How awesome is that?? I saw him yesterday, too, and he asked what we do. After all, he sees me a lot for about two or three weeks, then not at all for two or three months, then again for another two or three weeks, and etc etc. So I explained to him what we do for a living, which naturally inspired quite a bit of interest since Professional Ballroom Dance is, while rather glamorous, not the most common profession in the world. We didn’t have much time to talk, however; as it turns out, Starbucks is bustling on a Sunday morning!

And just now, we walked into the Surbiton High Street and the barista saw me in line and called out, “Venti Quod Vanilla Latte for you?” I gave him a big smile. On a day like today, when Simeon and I are not getting along and I’m coming down with a cold, my eyes burn and my sinuses are pounding AFTER medicine, and I’m not dancing particularly well (surprise??); it’s so nice when someone remembers my drink. That extra little attention goes a long way. And, of course, while he was making my latte he asked what we were doing over here, and I explained to him that we were professional dancers, which once again inspires a fair amount of interest. But really, I do love it when I get to know the baristas. Like getting to know servers at restaurants or bartenders at bars. It just makes the entire experience more enjoyable.

On another note, Starbucks in Britain offers a Creme Brulee Macchiato. Simeon and I ordered it the other day, and I’d have to admit, I didn’t fancy it too much. (Look at me, even starting to write like a Brit! The slang gets into me when we’re over here.) In the States Starbucks has the Pumpkin Spice Latte as an Autumn specialty, and I much prefer that to the Creme Brulee Macchiato. There’s something in the Creme Brulee syrup that makes the drink taste almost alcoholic, which is fine if I’m drinking a martini, or a Calypso Coffee after dinner, but not for my morning cup o’ joe. Personally, the Pumpkin Spice is a win for me, while the Creme Brulee is a definite fail. But maybe that’s just the American talking in me!

Heathrow Airport, Terminal 3, London

Date: January 25, 2011

Drink: Venti Quod Vanilla Latte

Food: Chocolate Chunk Chocolate Cookie 

Heathrow Airport, Terminal 3

This café is more like just a stand, which is unfortunate, because I think there is a Prezzo or something like that which is another café right next door, and they have a special seating area reserved just for their customers, even though it’s not even connected to the café. It’s just a boxed off area in the middle of the waiting lounge in Terminal 3. But anyway, we couldn’t sit there, and Starbucks doesn’t have any sitting area. So we went to the bar just across the waiting lounge and ordered some food and a couple of beers. Then after the quick meal, we headed over to Starbucks for our normal drink of choice before making our ways to our newly assigned gate. That was interesting, too. When we got to the gate, we had to open the cup so the lady checking our passports could see that we weren’t hiding anything inside the cup. Interesting, but not as interesting as the Starbucks at Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris, where the Air France attendant actually made me throw out my full cup of coffee because the customers are not allowed to have a cup of coffee with them during take-off. I haven’t run into that before or since.

Clapham High Street, Greater London, England

Date: 24th December, 2011

Drink: Quod Venti Vanilla Latte

There are no good Starbucks cafes in Dulwich. I’m serious. NONE. So in order to go to Starbucks if we get to Dulwich early, which happens often since we always give ourselves extra extra time to get through Streatham, we go to the Starbucks cafe in the Clapham High Street. It’s a great cafe, with a small outdoor area where we can enjoy the sun when IT’S NOT January. This is also a common sight to view a phenomenon I like to call “The Stroller Phenomenon”. I will write more on this in the future.

the cafe in the Clapham High Street

Kingston High Street, Kingston-Upon-Thames, England

Date: 23-1-2011

Drink: Venti Quod Vanilla Latte & Grande Triple Cappuccino

I’ve said this many times before… dancers drink coffee!!! Or have I said that on this blog? Anyway, for those of you who don’t know us, my husband and I are competitive ballroom dancers and the national representatives for Bulgaria. We travel all around the world to compete and generally push ourselves to the brink of exhaustion. As a result, we drink coffee, lots of coffee; between hard physical work, hard mental work (ballroom dancing is very mentally challenging), needing to constantly be in a good mood, and doing it all on low carb and low calorie diets, coffee is a lifeline. So don’t judge… coffee is necessary.

Kingston High Street, Kingston-upon-Thames, England

Which brings me to the Starbucks cafe in the High Street of Kingston-upon-Thames in Southern Greater London. We normally don’t go to this cafe because parking in enormously expensive. However, Kingston School of Dance, where ballroom legends Richard and Janet Gleave and Andrew Sinkinson teach, is just a short 5 minute walk away. Normally if we get to Kingston early we’ll drive up to Surbiton to get a coffee, but today we were at Kingston only 20 minutes early, not enough time to drive to Surbiton. Besides, Andrew asked us to get him a cappuccino, with three shots that day (he needed it). So, away to the High Street we skipped, to get ourselves and our quickly fading teacher a nice morning coffee.

Sutton High Street, Surrey, England

Date: January 21, 2011

Drink: Venti Quad Vanilla Latte

the cafe in Sutton we normally go to

I wrote earlier (back in December of 2010) about some of our regular Starbucks haunts in London, when I logged the Surbiton Starbucks in Kingston-upon-Thames. The Starbucks on Sutton High Street is yet another of our regular haunts. In actuality, there are two Starbucks cafes on the Sutton High Street, as well as a Café Nero just up the way. I think coffee is very much in demand in Sutton, which is fine by us. But the café we always visit while on the High Street is the bigger café, one that is a café in its own right, while the other location is more or less a little counter attached to a mall with some seating. They always both seem to be busy though, and so does Nero, so as I said, coffee is in demand in Sutton.

the smaller cafe we almost never frequent in Sutton

Our favorite café, however, is very centrally located, with a Boots and a Superdrug – both drugstores I go to often – only a short walk away. There is also an ASDA, the UK version of Walmart (it even has the Walmart smiley face, but it’s bright green instead of yellow), where we do all of our grocery shopping. Not to mention it’s comfortable, warm, the male barista we normally see is great and likes to chat about the differences between UK and USA cafes, and the internet is only mildly slow. If anyone gets an email from us while we’re in England, or chats with me on Facebook, or reads this post, chances are I’m either in this café in Sutton, or in Surbiton.

Westbourne, Borough of Bournemouth, England

Date: January 19, 2011 and January 21, 2011

Drink: Venti Quad Vanilla Latte, both times

Food: 2 Chocolate Chip Cookies

Someone from Starbucks, explain to me: why oh why do you not have a Starbucks Café in the downtown area of Bournemouth? I can promise you, if you had one on the high street near the Bournemouth International Centre, it would be packed with people. At least… packed with dancers during the UK Championships. But if the busy-ness of Starbucks Cafes around the UK at any time of day or year are anything to go by, I feel confident it would be busy year round. Anyways, for shame, Starbucks. Our choices

the evening of the 19th (can you see the big rhinestone glued on my forehead?)

were narrowed down to Costa Coffee (yuck, plus no free wifi), Caffe Nero (not bad, but expensive!) and a local coffee shop called Café Amour. We ended up there, upstairs, using their wifi that was limited to only 45 minutes. For shame, Starbucks, for shame!

The closest Starbucks to the Bournemouth city centre was some high street about a ten minute drive away, in a suburb of Bournemouth called Westbourne. Actually it was a very nice café.

on the morning of the 21st

Spacious, with lots of comfortable seating, and the baristas were good fun. Out of the three employees behind the counter, two of them were men that looked like active participants of the local goth or punk scene, which for me is great, cause they’re my kind of people! One was shaved bald except for a patch of hair in the back that reminded me of a landing strip (ha ha) and the other had a very interesting haircut of a mohawk on the back of his head, while in the front his bangs probably reached his shoulders and were brushed forward. Our second goth also had nice Crow-style eyeliner on. Like I said, great. They were seriously have a fun time with their job. And because I came in fresh from the competition, still done up with my competition hair, my competition makeup, and even had a huge Swarovski crystal glued to my forehead (I think you can see it in the picture), they really had a go at me. I loved it. I really hope they’re still there when I go back. And I could see I wasn’t the only one having a good time with these guys. Everyone who ordered a drink had a good laugh with them. They have a way of bringing genuine smiles to everyone’s faces.

Starbucks, if you read this, make sure you give some dibs to the Bournemouth café. I could tell everyone felt really relaxed and happy, and thoroughly enjoyed both the coffee and the company. But if you’re wondering why I’ve abandoned Starbucks for a few days… hello?? No café in Bournemouth?? Are you mad???

an idea of where Bournemouth is relative to London

Check-In

Date: January 15, 2011

Drink: Venti Quad Vanilla Latte

Just checked into Clapham Starbucks in South London. More to come on this cafe later! 🙂

 

Heathrow Airport Terminal 5, A-Gates

Date: December 16 & 17, 2010

Drink: Venti Quad Vanilla Latte, both times

Food: brie and cranberry sandwich on the 17^th (we needed breakfast, after all)

Travelling in winter sucks. And travelling through Heathrow Airport in winter sucks even more. I am sure they have their reasons, but why they need to cancel all flights on a certain runway where there’s no snow on the runway is beyond me. But that’s what they did.

We were so excited, because firstly neither of us had ever been to Germany, and secondly we got to the airport with enough time to relax, check out the Sony store, I could look for a hat, and we could stop by our favorite haunt – Starbucks! After all, we were landing in Berlin at 11 at night, then we’d have to drive to Leipzig and we’d probably get there around 2 in the morning… let’s just say a coffee was a much-needed jumpstart to the long night ahead of us.

Heathrow Airport Terminal 5 (sorry it's so dark, it was at night)

We got in and ordered our coffee. Then we found a place to sit while we waited for our gate to be assigned. And waited. And waited. At last I looked up at the monitor and saw, posted next to our flight, “Enquire at Counter”. I told Simeon, but he had to stand there and stare in a confused state for a few minutes. Then the flights before and after ours, one by one, said “Enquire at Counter” as well. The customer service counter was suddenly getting inundated with people, so Simeon made a run for it. While he was standing in line, suddenly it said next to our flight, “Cancelled Go to Gate 20”. Cancelled! Simeon was in the great mass of people at the customer service counter, where I knew not, so I somehow collected both of our carry-ons, both of our laptops, and our latte, and jostled my way through the crowd to Simeon. I told what the sign said, and we followed the mass exodus of disgruntled travelers to Gate 20, where there was yet another huge crowd waiting for who knew what. We had to be taken out of the airport and led back to the check-in counter to be rebooked. Hundreds of us. Dare I say? Thousands of us. Simeon and I tag-teamed it. Luckily, we were rebooked for a flight out of London at 7:55 to Hamburg the next morning. British Airways would comp our hotel, so we loaded onto a bus and got to the hotel, where we were also comped a pizza. Egh. Good enough.

Early the next morning we were back at the airport. We checked in, along with hundreds of other people, yet because our flight was before 8:00 (7:55, in fact), we were taken to the front of the line and expedited through. We once again had enough time to go to Starbucks and order a coffee and a brie and cranberry sandwich, which we toasted. The brie and cranberry sandwich, when warmed up, is a very good breakfast, I’d like to add. Anyway, we boarded our flight and took off pretty much on time, which was massively lucky as I later found out. Because one of the American couples who had flown through Heathrow and whose flight was scheduled to depart at 4:00 that same day told us that every flight after 8:00 that morning was cancelled. And our flight took off at 7:55…. Oh my God, somebody loves us!

Surbiton High Street, Kingston-Upon-Thames, England

Surbiton in London

 

Date: December 15, 2010

Drink: Venti Quad Vanilla Latte plus two Chocolate Chip Cookies and a chicken and brie sandwich.

There are a couple of London Starbucks that are our usual haunts. Our choice of them usually has to do with not only their location, but also the parking costs. We spend a lot of time taking lessons in Kingston, but parking in the Kingston city centre is extremely expensive; either that, or we park far away for much cheaper and burn off all our caffeine just walking back to the car. Because of the cost of parking in Kingston, we decided to stay away from the Starbucks in the Kingston High Street (of which there are two cafés within a short walk of each other). Instead, we found the Surbiton High Street, about a 10 minute drive from Richard and Janet Gleave’s studio in Kingston, as well as a 10 minute drive from “Kelly’s School of Dance” in Hampton Wick, where Anne Gleave currently teaches. Often, we can get parking right out front the café; even better, Boots Pharmacy and Superdrug, two drug stores where I buy all of my beauty supplies while in England, are a short walk across the street.

It’s not the most comfortable of Starbucks. I generally prefer to spend more time in the Sutton High Street Starbucks (more to come on that location in the future), but it’s warm in the winter and, more importantly, the walls are cluttered with outlets, which is a definite plus. Out of all the regular Starbucks we go to, this is the one where we spend most of time; especially this trip, when we were taking 90% of our lessons in Kingston. In October, we came here so often that one of the baristas got to know us; unfortunately I don’t see her here this time. Maybe she got a new job? Moved to a different location? Or she could’ve gone home to visit her family for the holidays; I think she is from Poland. Anyway, hopefully she’ll be back in January, when we’re back as well.

Normally we don’t order food when we go to Starbucks. Actually, when we travel, we very rarely eat out. It will come as a surprise to our friends, many of whom join us for happy hour food 3 or 4 times a week when we’re home. But honestly, I think Bellevue (in Washington state) must be the Happy Hour capital of the world. I don’t see so many restaurants with late night happy hour, especially with such good food, anywhere else in the world (at least, I haven’t found them yet). But Bellevue Happy Hours serve high quality food at such low prices that it’s difficult to justify going to the store for dinner. I mean, what you get for the price you pay is simply that cheap.

Today, however, was a special circumstance. Our lessons this morning were at 9:00am, which meant we had to leave very early. And considering I had been awake the night before until 1am sewing my Showdance costume (go to http://blog2.emotionsdancesport.com/2010/12/19/pictures-of-my-showdance-look.aspx for pictures of the dress), I simply didn’t have time to make lunch today. So here was our schedule today: 5:30am, wake up. 7:00am, leave for Kingston. 9:00am, start two lessons with Richard Gleave. 10:30am, run errands. 1:00pm, go back to Kingston Dance Studio for practice. 2:30pm, go to Starbucks to do online errands. 4:30pm, leave Surbiton for Cheam, eat on the road. 5:45pm, start two lessons with Denise Weavers at Dance Options Studio in Cheam. 7:45pm, finally go home and collapse, exhausted, on the couch. Being that we ate at 6:00am, we were starving by the time we reached Starbucks, nine hours (four of which, dancing) later. Simeon ate a cookie while I ran to Superdrug to buy myself some more hair dye. I didn’t want to eat the cookie, My Showdance outfit shows my midriff and I wanted to look thin! I resisted. I seriously resisted. But finally I gave in to my urges, and ate a cookie just before hopping in the car. And by the way, that chicken and brie sandwich we shared a half an hour before starting our lessons with Denise was really good.

Surbiton High Street, Kingston-Upon-Thames