Okay, we don't do PAYING OUR TAXES. Why? Number one, because we don't do it. Number two, because we don't do it.

Just sayin'

WRONG :( “I’m sorry; we can’t serve iced espresso here. It’s against our policy”

RIGHT :) “I’m sorry, we can’t serve iced espresso here, because it will taste like ass and you deserve better...try this instead..."

Customer Service 101, never say no, just give alternatives.

Business 101. PAY YOUR TAXES

lol. This is so stupidly unbelievable, yet great because it's true! omg Thanks for bringing this to my attention dcist.

Come for the great coffee, stay for the dick punching.

What a douche.

In the vein of official policy, DCist should make it a policy to have as many funny as shit articles as possible. This is the most hysterical thing I have read in t a long time. Why? Cuse it's true! I hope everyone took some time to read the full postings on both blogs. If you haven't then you are stupid and I'll punch you in the dick.

p.s. Can anyone else see this played out by the characters on Weeds? Kevin Nealon's character getting it in the nuts cuse he flipped out? I see it.

Okay, Nick Cho, seriously? 'Cause just FYI it's quite possible to get a caffe freddo in Italy (though it doesn't seem like that popular a choice unless it's blisteringly hot outside).

Is it really this big of a deal for a customer to allegedly offend the make-believe coffee gods?

I drink a lot of coffee... but it's coffee, not steak. If I went to any coffee establishment and they refused to serve me an ice americano, I would never go back.

if Nick does in fact punch Jeff in the dick, is he allowed to put ice on it or is that also against their policy?

Hey, Some coffee purists disdain all but black drip coffee, but I've never heard of anyone threatening genital mutilation over adding cream and sugar.

connie dobbs,

Good idea -- that's my biggest pet peave with iced coffee. I'll have to try that trick. My solution is adding a little high quality instant coffee or espesso to balance the watering effect of the cubes.

Iced coffee is a low cost solution for places to unload old coffee -- Starbucks realized this ages ago and even upcharges for iced over hot coffee, and charges for sweetening rather than offering free simple syrup (avoiding undissolved sugar granules). Even with their recent troubles, I'm guessing Starbucks has more collective business wisdom than Nick Cho.

from the murky blog

Q. Get over it. It's just coffee.
You're absolutely right. Everyone go home and call your mother and tell her you love her. Afterwards, understand that it is "just coffee" after all

WUT??

but this ain't DC, hoodrat. virginia gets to claim this guy for its own...

Jeff: I'd like a plain omelette, no potatoes, tomatoes instead, and an espresso on the rocks.
Barrista: (points to the menu) No substitutions.
Jeff: What do you mean? You don't have any ice?
Barrista: Only what's on the menu. You can have a number two - a plain espresso. It comes with a lemon twist.
Jeff: Yeah, I know what it comes with. But it's not what I want.
Barrista: Well, I'll come back when you make up your mind.
Jeff: Wait a minute. I have made up my mind. I'd like a plain espresso, no ice in the cup, and a side order of ice.
Barrista: I'm sorry, we don't have any side orders of ice...
Jeff: What do you mean you don't sell side orders of ice? You make iced tea, don't you?
Barrista: Would you like to talk to Nick Cho?
Jeff: ...You've got cups and an ice machine of some kind?
Barrista: I don't make the rules.
Jeff: OK, I'll make it as easy for you as I can. I'd like an espresso, plain, and an iced tea, no sugar, no splenda, no lemon.
Barrista: A number two, espresso, and an iced tea, hold the sugar, the lemon and the splenda. Anything else?
Jeff: Yeah. Now all you have to do is hold the tea, bring me the ice, give me a check for the iced tea, and you haven't broken any rules.
Barrista (spitefully): You want me to hold the tea, huh?
Jeff: I want you to hold it between your knees!
Barrista (turning and telling him to look at the sign that says, "No Substitutions") Do you see that sign, sir? Yes, you'll all have to leave. I'm not taking any more of your smartness and sarcasm.
Jeff: You see this sign? (He sweeps all the water glasses and menus off the table.)

If I weren't against giving money to their general pretentiousness as a rule, I'd say we go hold an ice-in. Bring our own damn ice, order our triple espressos, and pour everything together in front of their snobby, bitchy baristas.

Luckily, I lack a cock to punch, but others may not fare as well.

*gets up from desk and moves further down the cubicle row away from monkey*

Oh and I'm more than happy to punch you in the dick vote4pedro.

"Iced coffee is a low cost solution for places to unload old coffee"

Random anecdote.. when I worked at a Dunkin Donuts, the coffee for the iced coffee was specifically brewed at double-strength for that purpose, and was generally fresh (except in the winter, in which case it may have been sitting around for weeks. Yum.)

a fair point, IMGoph. maybe nova needs its own whyihate blog, but i can't really be bothered going out there often enough to explain all the reasons i hate northern virginia.

Wow, I forgot that Murky Coffee was still in business over in Arlington.

What kills me is that Nick threatens the cock punch right on the front page of his business's website. It's not even buried in the thread of some obscure forum or blog it's, like, right there on the freaking main page.

I'm sorry, but that's just being a dumbass. I don't care that the customer was an indignant snob who couldn't take "no" for an answer...responding the way Nick did is just stupid.

Of course, "forgetting" to pay your taxes is a pretty dumbass, stupid thing too...so perhaps there is a pattern developing here.

Interesting that this came out on the same day as the WashPost article on how small coffee shops are thriving while Starbucks is closing stores:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/13/AR2008071301463.html

They do have my favorite Coffee Peddler on the photo, Dale Roberts of the Java Shack.

Interesting that this hit BoingBoing the same day that WashPost puts out an article on how local coffeeshops are doing well while Starbucks closes 600 stores.

I know that Dale Roberts of the Java Shack (pictured in the article) would sell the guy the espresso on ice if he really wanted it.

classic reference Ed!!!

"Man, I haven't had a dick punch in a long time. I think I need to head over to Murky get me one, quick. Can I get that on ice?"

One "Capital of Thailand" iced coffee please

"And if it went the other way, and the barista was the first to get surly, my apologies; but complaining about the policy is still pointless."

Sure, that may be. But it seems most people are reacting to Nick's idiotic diatribe on his website. I spent 7 years working in retail/customer service, and I'll be the first to tell you that the customer is usually wrong. But posting a threat to assault a customer by "punching them in the dick" directly on your website? That's assinine, and Nick undoubtedly deserves all of the flak aimed at him.

Complaining about the policy is not necessarily pointless. Enough complaints, and the proprietor will likely get the message... or threaten to cockpunch you. It's a win-win.

Really, a "coffee policy"?? Murky Coffee, seems to have a "Murky" view of customer service..

Wow. Just wow.

+1 for what Mr. Buckwalter said.

Mr. Cho shouldn't be threatening junk punches, but the customer is wrong here. I for one appreciate a little elitism/integrity when it comes to high quality coffee. I wouldn't expect a Ferrari dealership to custom weld a Pinto to the top of my sparkling new 612 Scaglietti. Similarly, espresso on ice isn't espresso. The fact that Murky/Nick gets this and won't serve it (hell, they won't even serve it in to go cups), is a bit of integrity in a consumer landscape that panders to whining consumers. You can't trip without falling into a Starbucks, Jeff - I'm sure they've got you covered.

Nick knows his coffee. He should contract out the business management/tax paying/customer service parts of Murky. And calm down.

@demonfafa:
"Who cares if the customer is wrong? There's a right way to tell them so, and there's a wrong way. The barista was a snotty jackass and Nick should've apologized for that from the get-go. I'll refer to an above comment from RJ: 'Customer Service 101, never say no, just give alternatives.'"

Heh...Nick should've pulled a Dennis Taylor:

Nick: Mr. Hamilton, did you threaten this
customer or use profanity in any way?

Hamilton: Uh... he insulted me first.
He called me a moron, Nick.

Nick: Answer me! Did you threaten
this customer or use profanity?

Hamilton: Yes.

Nick: You're fired. I'm very sorry, sir.
I'll refund your money right now. I hope you won't hold this against us. You know how these young kids are these days. Here we are. Perhaps another iced espresso?

Damn, Common Grounds never sported an attitude like that. That place has gone way downhill since Murky took over.

It doesn't have way cool shows anymore (In the course of a couple months back in 2004 I saw Of Montreal, Six Parts Seven, and Okerville River there), the interior is totally crappy now, there's no lunch anymore, and apparently they all act like dickweeds now.

Although, it seems pretty clear to me that this waiter just got a little overzealous about a policy he probably doesn't even really understand. Teens do that a lot. Just look at Terhan in 1979.

Hey looks like Simmermon... boiled over?!

Come on!

Ah, well. I like his apology. at the end of his post. It's just teh internets after all.

14thandYou-

I wouldn't argue that threatening the cockpunch on the place's homepage is childish and dumb. But since Simmermon's tongue-in-cheek hyperbolic arson threat was also over the top (and, I'd add, his Five Easy Pieces analogy not quite analogous), then it's not exactly out of left field. Just childish chest-puffing in response to the same. Cho isn't the only one being a dick here (and Simmermon, in the addendum to his post, freely admits that fact).

@juanfe-

Who am I to say what rules are silly or not? Their business, their prerogative. Again, we're not talking about the lazy waitress in Five Easy Pieces not wanting to take a special order; this is a different situation. I'm not a coffee aficionado, so I don't know; but if prevailing wisdom is that serving espresso on the rocks ruins the integrity of the espresso, maybe Murky doesn't want to be seen as the kind of establishment that would willingly promote a practice that casts their product in an unfavorable light. If I want to go to a nice restaurant and put ketchup on my filet mignon, no one is going to stop me, but I'd be an asshole to expect them to do it for me. The appropriateness of their telling me outright that I might want to think twice before doing so is, in my opinion, a judgement call.

While we're mentioning famous movie snobs, let's also take time to mention famous dumb customers. From "Clerks":

Dante Hicks: You think you get stupid questions? You should hear the barrage of stupid questions I get.
Cold Coffee Lover: What do mean there's no ice? You mean I gotta drink this coffee hot?

"Are many of Nick's problems of his own making? Sure, but it's gotta be tough to try and hold on to your business; to try and do it passionately and with some integrity; and then have some jackanape taking potshots at you on the internet."

Exactly what about tax evasion and being douchebag (or cowardly) enough to threaten violence against a customer on the internet speaks of integrity? Any businessperson with integrity would know that the best way to deal with internet criticism like this is to keep your bitch mouth shut, unless you're issuing an apology.

I've worked at many a coffee shop, independant and snooby and lame-o starbucks and everything inbetween- and I love me an iced latte.

For those of you who are looking for ways to enjoy your coffee/espresso iced and don't have coffee ice cubes, add the milk to the espresso before the ice, the milk cools the espresso down and thus you have less ice melt. They won't do that at starbucks because they have to make everything by the book, but your local independent shop will probably appreciate the advice :)

Businesses exist for one reason, to make money. Otherwise they'd be charities. Unless it runs afoul of laws or mores, a business policy that hinders your ability to make money is a bad policy. The customer wants to give you his money. Take it.

"I miss the junk store that used to be in Arlington Murkey's space."

Now it's a "punch you in the junk" store!

Guh...I avoid Starbucks at all costs, but I actually prefer Starbucks to the self-important hipsters behind the counter at Murky. Get a real job and stop living off your parents.

This is exactly like the time when I was at a charming little bistro in Montmartre and the lousy frog sonovabitch tells me, "Eh, we do not serve ze, ow you say, 'ketchup' avec le frites." So I'm like, I didn't get both my legs blown off in the Situationist Riots just to have some cheese-eating surrender monkey tell me how to eat my goddamned fries. Well, by then he's gotten the gendarmes and the go to the cockpunching and I wake up a week later in a Turkish prison. Long story short: you need to stand for what you believe in, regardless of how profoundly retarded it is. It doesn't matter that you've turned your meal into a syrup-drenched fiasco or whether you've ruined a perfectly good coffee and alienated everyone around because you're still on the phone while the girl is trying to take your order and you're like, "CAN'T YOU SEE I'M ON THE PHONE?!?" You're an American, goddammit! And that means being a complete asshole at all times and to all people. Even in your sleep. Being an American means twitching in your sleep and kicking your bed partner in the groin in your dreams and in reality. Also, never smuggle hashish out of Istanbul. You'll end up having your girlfriend rub her tits on the partition of the visiting cell and Oliver Stone will totally screw your story up. I mean, there wasn't a single monkey in Midnight Express. WTF?

And I would totally patronize a place called "Junkpunchers." I don't care what they're selling. That pretty much crystalizes what the American consumer needs RIGHT NOW.

Why shouldn't a Ferrari dealership custom weld a Pinto to the top of a sparkling new 612 Scaglietti if the person who owns the Scalietti and the Pinto offers to pay them to?

What does the Ferrari dealership care?

Well, technically that would "dilute" the Ferrari brand.

Kinda like how I wash my ass with Hannah Montana beach towels.

Bravo Monkey!

@betty, politburo

Yawn. Right. So even if it was hyperbole and/or car analogies are passé - the argument is still pretty easy to follow.

If you want a lovingly handcrafted product that the proprietors have worked tirelessly at perfecting, go to a high end specialty retailer. If you expect a custom order which undermines the qualities of the product you are there to purchase, expect to be turned down and perhaps treated with a certain amount of haughtiness, with or without Capital Letters.

I've been to a fair number of establishments, and as far as I can tell there isn't a better cappuccino in/around town than Murky's classic. They know it, and they won't let you screw it up with substitutions or flavors.

What the hell is wrong with that place...sure they do make good coffee, but its JUST COFFEE. I've been drinking iced espresso for years now and have had similar issues at Big Bear Cafe and the EM Murky. These hipser dufus baristas need to get over themselves and realize that it is in fact JUST COFFEE. You aren't curing cancer back there behind the bar in your overalls. If people want their drinks a certain way, let them have it. If they fill up their cup with milk (which i don't do), let them! They are still paying you $2.50 for fucking coffee!

"Cho isn't the only one being a dick here (and Simmermon, in the addendum to his post, freely admits that fact). "

Ian - That wasn't my argument. I said that most of the flak Nick is receiving is deserved due largely to his angry response on his company's website. Customers are total tools all of the time, dealing with them comes with the territory of being a business owner. But a surefire way to kill off your clientele is to make public threats of violence against customers in a very public forum (and in a very childish way, I might add.)

Nick is the one with everything to lose here, not the customer, who can just purchase their coffee somewhere else. Considering Nick's tax "troubles" with his DC store, I'd say he's walking on pretty thin ice.

Considering Nick's tax "troubles" with his DC store, I'd say he's walking on pretty thin ice.

Oh no you didn't!

Hoo, what a train wreck. I'm loving the comparison of coffee brewing to some kind of magical alchemy that turns espresso to garbage over ice.

"Touching a waitress’s chest is Not Okay."

Really?!! Uh oh.

I was hoping to avoid getting involved in this but when the name Big Bear was brought up I couldn't resist. I resent being called a "hipser dufus." (In fact, I don't even know what a "hipser" is.) Now, if you want to call us at Big Bear a bunch of dufuses then go right ahead. We are all very aware of the fact that we are dufuses. In fact some of us are dorks, some of us geeks and we even employ a small cadre of nerds.

My sympathies are with the customer, however rude he may have been. I worked at a doughnut shop in high school and always made my best effort to accommodate each customer's wishes, not at anyone's behest, but because it seemed like the right thing to do. Case in point: We did not, as a matter of course, serve coconut doughtnuts, but enough people asked for them, and were discouraged upon finding out that we didn't serve them, that I decided to do something about it. I bought a bag of shredded coconut for, like, four dollars, and the next time someone asked for a coconut doughnut said, "We don't have any ready-made, but if you have a minute, I can take a plain doughnut, dip it in glaze, and sprinkle coconut on top; how's that work for you?" Customer service like that is repaid in spades. If Murky wants to keep on keeping on, they need to focus a bit more on keeping the customer happy.

notoriousreg: sorry, but as a (fellow?) bloomingdalian, i have to tell you that big bear is full o' the hipsters (i don't know what a hipser is either).

This story is so worth it just for all of these comments.

And monkeyerotica, you crack me up with your crazy comments. Don't let them water you down with ice.

Some one riled up the Monkey, bring in the JunkPuncher!

@Ajacied:
those dufuses at Big Bear, um, a lot of them used to be "holier-than-thou pricks" at EM murky.
and man, with that attitude of calling people you don't know "fucks" i'm suprised people aren't begging to be your friend. you sound so nice.

I always thought the EM Murky guys were quite nice.

Exactly what about tax evasion and being douchebag (or cowardly) enough to threaten violence against a customer on the internet speaks of integrity? Any businessperson with integrity would know that the best way to deal with internet criticism like this is to keep your bitch mouth shut, unless you're issuing an apology.

I've seen a lot of people talk about Nick's tax problem as if he's the only business person that's ever screwed up on paying his taxes. I'm not saying that Nick shouldn't have paid his taxes, but as my Dad (I'm sure he stole this from someone, I just don't know who) once told me, "The only thing more American than paying your taxes, is not paying your taxes." This whole country was founded on a tax revolt, so don't act like a sheep-like willingness to fork over your hard earned dollars to the incompetent thieves that run our government is some sort of test of character.

Nick botched it, plain and simple; but the dude had the sack to publicly say that he fucked up and it wasn't anyone's fault other than his own. That's a lot more than you can say for a lot of other folks that have public financial meltdowns.

Also, why is Nick any more of douche or a coward than the guy who threatened to burn his business to the ground? Or what separates him from the commentariat of DCist (myself included) that spends untold hours snarking at anything and everything?

With that said, I have to agree with you that Nick should have kept his fool mouth shut. That whole thing about rolling around in the mud with a pig and all that.

I just can't get with this whole "fuck Nick Cho because he didn't pay his taxes" vibe there seems to be around here. He didn't pay and he has paid the price for his mistake.

Nick is mad passionate about coffee and I learned the difference between good coffee and bad coffee as a result of patronizing the EM Murky location.

If you read this Nick: stay strong and know that there's at least one person who still feels you. I don't give a fuck about the taxes or the dumb threats on the internet, although you should probably avoid both of those things in the future. (I'm just sayin') Keep following your passion, learn from your mistakes, and you'll end up in the right place.

Best,

HR

So now a sarcastic remark on a blog is equivalent to a literal threat? Oh crap. I'm going to jail.

sypriss: I don't have to know someone to call them a fuck or a prick...the way that some of the baristas acted when I would go in there warranted that label in my opinion. Thats all. If some of those people now work at Big Bear then so be it, maybe the person that frowned on my iced espresso was one of them, but in general I do not see the same level of snobbery there.

i've been boycotting murky for two years because their staff is snotty. and their long tea-bags always result in me getting burnt by hot water.

i wasn't there, so i didn't see how mr. simmermon behaved, but i would have been a jerk, too. i hope mr. murky-owner is paying attention. coffee shops are very elastic business, i know he won't be getting any of my money.

java shack makes a delicious beverage without the attitude.

Oh noes, a few blog readers won't come to his coffee shop. 10,000 people are going to learn that the place exists in the Style section tomorrow or something. No publicity is bad publicity, remember?

I have to go against most of the comments on here and say I would love to give Nick a big high five.

It seems that most are downplaying the intense level of douchey-ness displayed by Jeff, and then berating Nick for defending his prominently displayed policy and more importantly, an employee that had to put up with the Jeff's completely shitastic, childish actions.

It's nice to see a business owner in the service industry not bow down to the ludicrous "customer is always right" crap and stick up for an employee who was just trying to follow the rules. Ok, he could have gone about it a different way, but nothing in the descriptions of what went down on the employee's part warranted Jeff acting like he's got a major stick up his ass.

Jeff, after completely ignoring stated policy, gets his panties in a twist when the other barista calls him on it and launches into an obnoxious tirade!

And he could have gone somewhere else to wait for his gf. But no...he stays, admits he gets a second good drink, and then has the audacity to turn around and write "Fuck you" on the tip???

If I were the owner, damn right I'd want to punch him in the junk (best thing ever to come out of this incident, btw). His response was minor and much less offensive than what Jeff put out there on his blog.

News Flash: Nick can run his business anyway as he pleases, just like anyone else. And he can post whatever he wants on his own website. How would you feel if I came into your place of work and started telling you how to run it?

So kudos Nick and god bless you for contributing to the creation of the term "junk punching" and making my disgusting, tastes-like-soil-mixed-with-laundry-detergent crap of a Starbucks tall coffee come out my nose.

i know every time i want tea-bagged i go to murky. they might be "holier-than-thou pricks" but man, can they tea-bag.

on a serious note, has anyone ever gone into a quality coffee shop and talked to the barista? next time, when there are not a thousand people in line waiting for drinks, stop and talk to one of them. i am sure everyone at murky and big bear would be more than happy to share why they love coffee and their job so much.
and @ ajacied: you do realize that most of the people that work at these places are either students or it is their second job. it's just kids trying to make a living. be cool next time you go into murky. say hi and i am sure you'll be treated accordingly.

Cockpunched in a coffeehouse....too funny.

um, so ex-murky holier-than-thou is also at Pound. in fact those kids are everywhere. they're watching you.

Glad this was posted.

You can only be a douchebag if your business is in the black.

This discussion boils down to whether or not customers have the right to insist that trained professionals lower the quality of their product because they want it that way. In this case what the customer wanted compromised the quality of the culinary product that the barista was trained to produce. The barista was trying to increase the likelihood of customer satisfaction by providing an empirically superior drink.

The problem was that it was a kid in a t-shirt who was trying to communicate this dedication to quality. The response would have been different, if it had been a fifty year old gentleman in a bow tie and with a French accent who was telling the customer that it is “really, really wrong” to deep fry their dry-aged prime steak or pour their bottle of Petrus over ice. Yet pouring espresso over ice chemically compromises the product and alters the sensory experience more than these examples. It is accepted, and in fact respected, for professionals in other industries to decline service or production if they feel that to do so would lower the quality of their work but there is a lack of respect for this in certain customer service environments.

This is what the customer quoted the register person saying in his blog: “This is our store policy, to preserve the integrity of the coffee. It’s about the quality of the drink, and diluting the espresso is really not cool with us. So I mean, you’re going to do what you’re going to do, and I can’t stop you, but” I see this as trying to communicate a dedication to quality, not being snobby or rude.

This is what he quotes his own response being: “I interrupted. ‘You’re goddamned right you can’t stop me,’ I said. ‘I happen to have a personal policy that prohibits me from indulging stupid bullshit like this — and another personal policy of doing what I want with the products I pay for.’ Then I looked him right in his big wide eyes and poured the espresso onto the ice.” This is definitely rude.

I am repeatedly shocked by what is considered acceptable customer behavior here in DC having worked in the service industry on both coasts. Customers repeatedly assert power for no other reason than to do so and like to insist that they know more than they do. Many of us in this industry are professionals who have spent the better parts of our lives honing our skills and knowledge. We take pride in it and we have the right to not compromise it. The people at Murky rightly take pride in what they do and I understand their defensiveness when they aren’t trusted or respected, and, in this case, are attacked.

Wow 130 post and no Hitler yet.

big bear promises not to punch you if you order iced espresso: http://tinyurl.com/6xm6c4

thank god lana and stu are pacifists, eh?

candrews: Awesome. I don't even drink coffee and now I want to go there.

And to everyone who's way too uptight about the "integrity" of their product: This is why I will never, ever, ever order steak in a restaurant again. If I ask for it well-done and have to send it back twice only to find that it's still pink, there's a problem, and it's not with me. So when I'm dragged to a steakhouse for a family/office function and order the $12 grilled chicken instead of the $40 filet mignon, well, it's not my loss.

Do you have to order the punch before or after you order the iced espresso? Also can you order it for another customer like the impatient prick who can't wait 2 minutes to order his coffee - "I'd like an iced espresso and a punch in the junk for the gentleman behind me."

Fat Matt, "emperically superior drink" is SUCH HORSESHIT -- notions like "superior" are purely in the eyes (or in this case, mouths) of the customers! If you want to tell Jeff or anyone that the way HE prefers his espresso to taste is worse, better, or whatever than any other way is to somehow be able to empathetically inhabit his sense of taste, which I think we'll all agree you can't do. Same thing holds for deep-fried steak, or wine over ice, or anything else -- you can say that you find it to be inferior, but to say that others must accordingly find it inferior is just flawed.

Nick has made it clear that he'd rather lose (and cockpunch) his customers than sell them iced espresso -- that's fine, given that the tenor of people's prior experiences with him and his staff is that there's a lot that they'd rather do than have customers. But to argue that doing so is justified on account of some notion of universal purity, rather than just an ego par excellence, is fatally broken.

juanfe: i figured it was annie's you were talking about, but i'm glad you took the time to verify that!

hombrequeso: I think that arguing that the quality of a drink (that has been modified to nullify it's aromatics and increase it's astringency) is purely in the eyes or mouths of the beholder is SUCH HORSESHIT. That aregument doesn't fly in art and other parts the culinary world.

fat natt: thank christ than that we're not talking about art or anything culinary. we're talking about coffee.

An advertisement now appearing on the side of DC Metro busses (with a picture of a frosty glass of iced goodness): "It's iced. It's coffee. It's not complicated. Caribou Coffee."

Game. Set. Match. Caribou.

IMGoph: It's almost cute how hard they're trying to be snarky, calling it "the interwebs" and all.

alright, i'm overposting like mad on this story, but you have to read this!

so i just checked the dc tax office site. looks like nick was pretty right on about them over estimating his liabilities. imagine, the dc tax office messing up!
nick has put up with a lot of shit online and in the real world. he has taken full responsibility for his actions and that says a lot about the guy. if the tax office would have done their job and reassessed his liabilities the capitol hill murky would still be around .
http://otr.cfo.dc.gov/otr/frames.asp?doc=/otr/lib/otr/tax/delinquent/Delinquent_Taxpayers_Restaurants_May07.pdf

I can't stand when cafes and restaurants think that snobbery and quality have to go hand-in-hand. Too many baristas think that affect is more important than how you pull a shot. Those of us who live near Clarendon are unfortunately stuck putting up with such occasional nonsense from the only game in town. There are non-assholish ways of refusing to serve something a particular way. Murky would do well to train its baristas in friendliness.

@AngrySam:

so true. i think people get intimidated by quality/snobbery and end up missing out decent food & drink.

@IMGoph: that last link you posted was hilarious.

best post about coffee EVER.