Tour de Cafes

I've written before about how cafes seem to be either the destination or the middle of most recreational bike rides.  Some cafes become "known" as being cyclist friendly and begin to attract even more cyclists as the years go by.  How does one "know" that a cafe is biker friendly?  Do you see bicycles parked every which way in front of the cafe?  Do you see a lot of people in colorful shirts and funny looking shoes?  If you answer yes and yes to a cafe as you ride by, then mark that shop and pay a visit next weekend.

Here is my list of independent coffee houses that I frequent on a monthly basis.  I don't include the chains like Schtarschmucks, Peatbog's, or Coffee Been There because, well, two reasons: 1) You may pass several of these on one bike ride, and that just seems unfair to the other guys, and 2) I'm a coffee snob.  Oh, I'll go in, and give them money, but I'd never go in by myself or if there's an alternative that I know about.  There's still that one time in Claremont that I went to Schmuck's just because this old dude and I were playing Stoplight time trial, and I saw him go to the independent up the street, so I went to Schmuck's.  I hate it when old dudes are faster than I am, but what you gonna do except train and keep in mind that they'll die before you anyway.  Let's see how fast they are then, huh?  Anyway, I'm being a little petty, but this is my opinion and my personality, so there you have it.

So, I've structured this tour as if I were planning a ride and the point was to hit each of these cafes.  I figure the ride would end up being about 65 to 70 miles, starting from Pasadena.  Hold on to your coffee mugs and if you start to shake, that's not rough road, that's just caffeine.  From Pasadena, we go east.

1. Mary's Market in Sierra Madre.  I have no idea how my buddy Mike found out about this place, but getting there is just as fun as having a latte and croissant.  Here's a few pictures of the entrance:

 

 

There's a neat little climb that deadends at a little dam, but you do have to watch your speed coming back down because that street is really a glorified private driveway.  There's Richard having fun with his brakes:

 

I'm that little bunch of dots behind Richard.

 

After coming down from the foothills of Sierra Madre, we enter downtown Sierra Madre, and stop at

2. Beantown.  Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of this place because this place is kind of close to my house and I don't do a lot of hanging out there anymore. 

Update: 2006-03-25 - Pictures now available.  Check these out.

 

There's the brand new sign for the old coffee bar.

There's an old sign from the old coffee bar.

 

Well, take that hippies!  I wonder sometimes what Sierra Madre was like in the 1960's and if Bean Town was there at the time.  I'm not so sure I would have fit in.

But it beats the Schmucks that's on the corner where all the Montrose guys hang out after their ride.  The Montrose ride starts, naturally, in Montrose every Saturday, rides out to San Dimas and then back.  There are about 80 riders going all-out in a peloton at about 30 to 35 miles an hour.  Very cool to see them as they zip across Monrovia and Duarte.  Speaking of Monrovia, the old town there has the next cafe.

3.  Monrovia Coffee Company.  I had some pictures of this place, but I was there too early in the morning, and the sunlight at that angle washed out everything.

Update: 2006-03-25 - New pictures available.

 

Here's the view from an outside table.

Hmm...Ice Cream...

 

This place has some very nice tables outside to watch your bikes as you sip your latte.  After Monrovia, the next stop is in either San Dimas or Laverne, which is fine, since I think you should have enough caffeine in your system to last you til then.  They don't have any coffee at the next stop, but I like stopping there anyway for juice or fruit.

4. Starberry Farms.  This place is, for lack of a better word, cute.  I know, a manly man like me (ha!) should be able to come up with something better than that, but, the place is cute.  Take a look:

 

I wrote about them earlier during Christmas season. See? Cute!

 

Now, I've purposefully left out another cafe that you could get to before San Dimas, but it entails climbing Glendora Mountain Road and the coffee is not good enough to warrant a 35 mile loop with 2500 feet of climbing.  Their hot chocolate, though, is simply heaven, but that could be just the altitude affecting me.  I don't even know what the place is called except "MARKET & CAFE."  I took a picture of my Solvang ride buddies Jerry and David from last November, so you can see what the parking lot looks like if you go to my second to last blog.  From  San Dimas, we make our way to Laverne and our next stop.

5. Coffeeberry.  Again, Mike tipped me off to this place and I'm not even sure he remembers how he heard about it, but it's got prime location across the street from the University of Laverne.  Unfortunately, I'm usually there on a Saturday morning and that's where the college kids (and the eye candy) ain't.  See, real crowded:

 

 

This place is the destination for my 50 mile rollers ride, so when I tell my buddies that I'm doing my Laverne ride, they know there's going to be short climbs, rolling hills, "The Wall" in Glendora, and a latte and croissant in Laverne.  "The Wall" is conveniently placed at the driveway of St. Lucy's, the Church of the Open Door, run by Franciscans, which just cracks me up every time I finish that short, steep climb.  12 years of Catholic school, now you know why I'm a little strange.

Beyond Laverne is Claremont, but my group usually stops at the Schmucks that's down there.  Next time we're down that way, I'm going to insist on the independent that's up the street.  Okay, so now we make our way back west.  The next 3 stops are in South Pasadena and are all within a block of each other.

6. Kaldi's.  This was a frequent destination for our lazy Sunday recovery rides back when we started in Pasadena instead of South Pasadena.  This place is very popular with cyclists because there's plenty of outdoor seating, plenty of places to lean your bike against, and there's not a lot of cars to watch out for.

 

Cozy and Inviting

 

Velo Monrovia, ahem, Stan's Bicycles organizes their own Sunday ride and this is where they stop before turning around.

 

Look at all the bikes, look at all the coffee!

 

I love this place, not only because I've been coming here since high school, but because it's got personality, which is another reason I support the independent coffee house.  This is the place with the "wee" and "not so wee" cup sizes instead of those italian window sizes they have at Schmucks.

 

Better drink that coffee before the croc gets it all.

 

The next place is South Pasadena is just a block away, and is another place I've been going to since high school.

7. Buster's.  I'd mainly gone to this place for ice cream and coffee in the afternoons before I was old enough to cause trouble in bars, but sunning yourself on a Sunday morning and meeting friendly dogs is good too.

 

I should shut up and drink that coffee!

Okay, last picture, then I have to drink that latte.

Still not drinking that coffee.

 

And next, we cross the street and the metro tracks to get to the next coffee house.

8. Heirloom Bakery.  This place is the current start and finish for our Sunday recovery rides, because they serve brunch!  Well, they don't serve it very quickly, but the food is very tasty.

 

Come on in, but order the omelet before 11:30.

Look at the coffee carnage! Oh, the humanity!

Now that our bellies are full and the coffee's sloshing around, it's time to climb up into Altadena, but if you need a quick jolt after all that coffee and heavy breakfast fare, I know a little place at the Rose Bowl that can help you out.  But don't blink, or you'll miss it.

9. The 10th Hole Snack Bar.  Brookside golfers know about this place, and lazy walkers too, but this place opens at 8:30, so this is all I have to show you:

 

There was already a line, at 8:25.

 

Yup, I was there at 8:25, but they weren't rushing to open up.  I took an extra lap around the bowl, but when I came back it still looked like this.  So, no coffee jolt for me.  Finally, we hit our last spot in northern Pasadena, after working up an appetite by climbing our way up to Altadena and coming down Altadena Drive.

10. Cafe Culture.  There's the front door:

 

Only a mile from my house.

 

This place reminds me of this great place in Berkeley called Coffee Source, where they concentrate on the different kinds of beans that are grown around the world, not just some cheap blends of arabica and robusta.  I mean, what's up with that?  I want pure bean.  Don't tell me your dark roast is some Sumatra and Kenya blend when I know that over 50 percent of it is robusta, the same crap that's in instant coffee.  Okay, there goes my coffee rant.  Seriously, don't get me started.  I'm even worse about beer.

So, let's call that ride the Jittery Java Tour.  Guaranteed to get your heart rate up without even pedaling.