Every adulterer remembers the day they cheated on their loved one. Today October 29th marks the day I cheated on my beloved Mishka’s and went to another coffee cafe, Common Grounds found in South Davis. Many adulterers are consumed with guilt, shame, and dirtiness. As I sit in the plush swivel chairs that are part of the homey ambience provided by Common Grounds, I am filled with guilt and shame, but definitely not the dirtiness. Any regular of Mishka’s knows that you sacrifice comfort, spaciousness, customer service, and clean bathrooms for free internet, people watching, and a damn good Americano. Although the Americano doesn’t quite match the Mishk’s, the bathroom was tidy (it actually had seat covers) and the chairs provide a comfortable place to sit for hours upon hours.
Common Grounds seems to live up to it’s name of a common standard commercialized coffee shop like it’s fellow Davis competitors Starbucks and Pete’s. It does lack the unique character of Mishka’s. Mishka’s regimented social rules are masked by what appears to be a free-spirited fair trade coffee shop. It’s hard to match a cafe that has strict social rules of ordering before sitting and then limiting where a given individual can sit. And where rules may just be guidelines at other coffee shops, at Mishka’s the owner, a 30th something Eastern European with a tight white shirt and an equally tight pair of blue jeans, is constantly lurking throughout the closely placed tables making sure each customer is sitting in the proper area, has purchased something and doesn’t bring outside food in.
Perhaps I am an abused coffee child who finds comfort in strict social cafe rules. And in some masochistic way, I
like the uncomfortable wooden chairs, the stiff non-ergonomic benches, urine filled bathroom floors, and the loud roasting of coffee beans. I am the battered wife that can never leave her abusive husband.
The above picture is of Keyvan sitting in a miniature rocking chair added to homey family like ambience of Common Grounds.
