Let’s Have Coffee

Yesterday I met up with a friend at the new Wilde Lake Starbucks. It was my first visit since they opened. The location was a convenient midpoint between our two houses and besides: I was curious.

I know that many of you can recite the list of former occupants of this space with the confidence of Sunday school scholars reeling off the books of the Bible. I can’t. My memory goes back as far as the KFC. It wasn’t a particularly large KFC, as I recall. I remember having dinner there once with my daughter after a summer camp show at Slayton House. I think we were the only customers.

I had a bit of a Doctor Who moment when I walked in to the Wilde Lake Starbucks. It’s enormous. It may be the largest Starbucks I have ever been to. It’s definitely “bigger on the inside.” The traffic flow was slightly counter-intuitive for me (you go right and move left) but the service was friendly and competent. At ten am on a Saturday morning, the place was hopping. The parking lot, shared with David’s Market, was packed. The drive-through had a line.  I think it is safe to say that if Starbucks felt it was taking a chance on this location, they are probably seeing some reassuring numbers at this point.

The Wilde Lake Village Center was full of people. It is no longer a vast wasteland of lonely parking lots. This is a good thing. I drove around a bit to try and understand how it has been reconfigured. I think I like it.

While I was chatting about the future of the local arts scene in Wilde Lake, a certain candidate for delegate was meeting up with interested citizens for a meet and greet for coffee at the Downtown Whole Foods. Another friend of mine posted from her favorite coffee place in town: Anna’s Coffee Roastery.  Oh, how we love our coffee places in this town.

And did I tell you about the time I had coffee at Caffe Bene with a candidate for the Board of Education? Wait, let’s save that story for another day.

Have you been to the new Starbucks in Wilde Lake? What did you think? Do you like the new Village Center?

And where are you having coffee this morning?