Thursday
Nov 20th
Home 
Mexican Lifestyles Food & Dining Dining Out: Business Class Coffee: Coscafe Espresso Bar
Mexican Lifestyles Food & Dining Dining Out: Business Class Coffee: Coscafe Espresso Bar | Dining Out: Business Class Coffee: Coscafe Espresso Bar |
|
|
| Written by Michael Shapiro | |
| Saturday, 29 April 2006 | |
|
That towering monstrosity of gleaming reflective glass on Chapultepec is lonely no more. Back in December the previously vacant Chapultepec Tower became home to the spacious, slick and pricey Japanese restaurant Suntory, with its entrance on the Calle Morelos side. More recently, the Hidalgo side of the tower has become home to a couple of joints - an upscale restaurant bar called St. Elias and an airy corner cafe known as Coscafe Espresso Bar. I'm currently reporting live from the latter location.
Guadalajara, Jal. It's a pleasant scene with friendly service. The cafe proper consists of a single, high-ceilinged room with top-to-bottom windows on two sides and a platformed seating area that wraps around the back of the cafe. Notably for a Guadalajara cafe, much of the seating caters to clients who might be dining, drinking, or working solo. There's counter seating that faces out the windows, for instance, and bench seating on the back platform with tables built for one or two more like a desk than a table, actually, affording the perfect view of the cafe over one's laptop screen. Free WiFi Internet access is provided something still lacking at Guadalajara's increasingly omnipresent green-and-white coffee chain from Seattle. The place has the air of some cosmopolitan chain in a more cosmopolitan city but, I'm told, Coscafe isn't a chain yet. The owners, who hail from Israel and appear to drink from a bottomless cup of espresso all day, plan to expand but this Coscafe is their very first. They're off to a good start. The coffee here is a blend of Mexican beans, brewed rich and strong. (Coscafe also sells whole-bean coffee to go.) Particularly strong is the espresso, shots of which are tiny and served with a soda-water chaser. There's also a small menu of breakfasts, sandwiches and salads. At first glance the selection appears pricey and relatively uninspired, but don't be deterred - the chapata-roll sandwiches, for instance, are far better than I anticipated. I recommend the Italiano (feta, pesto, sun-dried tomatoes, squash and roasted peppers marinated in olive oil 46 pesos) and the Queso de Cabra y Berenjena (goat cheese, pesto, roasted eggplant marinated in olive oil and spices, tomato and lettuce 49 pesos). I say they're far better than I anticipated because, unlike many so-called gourmet sandwiches at new cafes in Guadalajara, these have flavor. That's significant, because for the most part around here, sandwich flavor is inversely proportional to price. Speaking of flavor, try the Huevo Coscafe (49 pesos) for breakfast that's a couple of fried eggs covered in a chunky tomato-based sauce with onions and a number of spices, of which I'm fairly certain paprika is one. This dish brings to mind one of my primary theories of food, which is that any sauce or soup worth its weight will be just as delicious, if not more so, served over eggs the next morning. Of course in this case we need to reverse that this sauce would be just as good served vegetables or pasta for dinner. As for the prices, which you may have noticed are a little steep for a local cafe, fear not package deals are the answer to your financial concerns. The breakfast I described is a paquete in itself: that price also gets you an espresso drink (of which cafe americano is one option) and fresh juice. Between 1 and 6 pm you can opt for a sandwich or salad paquete for just 59 pesos those extra pesos bring you fresh juice, dessert, and coffee in addition to your chosen sandwich or salad. Now that's what I'm talkin' about. |
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
This Week's Stories
Popular
Feature of the Week
Competitors stay cool despite Wal-Mart fever
Photos of the Week
|
Copyright © 1998 - 2008 Guadalajara Reporter. All rights reserved.
The material on ths site may not be reproduced, distrubuted or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of the Guadalajara Reporter. Developed by Hawk Tail Design |
|
