Michael and I stopped in last night after we went to my Tailor who is at the Safe Harbors space at 115 Broadway. I ordered tea, soup, and biscotti, which were all delicious. I treated Joyce, my tailor, to coffee and biscotti; she said the French roast was delicious. Michael. my 10-year-old ordered the special Zebra hot cocoa, which is a mix of chocolate and white cocoa. I was looking forward to taking photos of the food and the cafe and posting a little review for your guys. I noticed the barrista girl getting a paper cup, which would not look good on facebook. "What's the paper cup for?" I aksed. "Oh, we don't trust children to have hot cocoa in our breakable ceramic cups. They could drop them and hurt themselves." (And then we would get sued was the subtext). We got into a discussion about child fine motor development, when dexterity develops, and whether this is a "policy" or something she came up with. The hot cocoa wasn't cheap and part of the deal was getting it in the beautiful ceramic cup with the design on top. I explained that Michael had great dexterity. He can play trumpet, he could spear a pea with a fork when he was 10 months old. That he is on the rowing team and can carry his own kayak. That he is 10 but he can balance a single crew shell, which most people cannot do. By now, I had gathered quite an audience of interested parties and it was no longer about the Zebra Hot cocoa, it was about the rights of 10-year-olds everywhere to get their hot cocoa in a ceramic cup. "What's a crew shell?" said one audience member, I mean, patron, who was listening intently. I have a ton of photos in a brag book but the most handily available was my key chain, which is a photo of Michael and me (YES, that is proper grammar, look it up!) in a crew shell. He is at stroke. "Wow, you clean up nice," said the patron. "Don't look at me," I said. "My point is my son can balance a 250-lb. crew shell, I think he can carry hot cocoa across the room." At which point, the barrista gave up. She gave him the ceramic cup and I put a big tip in the jar. Michael then proceeded to carry the completely full giant zebra hot cocoa across the room without spilling an drop. Whereupon, a few people clapped and he said to me, and I quote, "Mommy, can we ever just go somewhere and not turn it into a civil rights demonstration?" Back to the Review: steep prices for the City of Newburgh but worth it in MHO, great coffee, great tea, great baked goods, delicious soup. Edgy, industrial, early-Soho, Noho kind of atmosphere, which I loved. They will need to invest some time training their staff. Two suggestions to the owners: lose the 90's rock music and put on Jazz; and Dutchess Community College offers courses in Employee Development, Customer Relations and National Worker Readiness: Being the Best of the Best, which I would HIGHLY recommend for your employees. Other than that, Welcome to Newburgh! Mrs. Lo
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