The Assignment Houston meetup at the Houston Museum of Natural Science was a big success! Thanks to Erin from the Museum and Laurie from Assignment Houston for organizing a very cool event.
A TON of photographers showed up... I was enlisted to take the group photo, I did a merged/stitched panoramic (visit the photo on Flickr to see the full size version, if you dare):
Discovery Green is a very cool park smack in the middle of downtown Houston... I went this morning to check it out and get some photos before it got TOO hot. I like forward to spending more time there in cooler weather. :)
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I recently went to Antidote Coffee (continuing the theme of trying late-night coffee houses when Catalina is closed). Again, my criteria are all about the latte (see my post on Inversion).
The verdict: pretty decent! The latte wasn't great, but it wasn't offensive and could definitely be enjoyed. Overall a little weak on the espresso, and fairly standard (but not incredibly overheated) milk. Better than many I've had, not as good as mine at home.
I would definitely go back if I was looking to get out of the house for some coffee when Catalina is closed.
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coffee, houston, antidote
Friday evening I was too late to make it to Catalina (they have a mostly day crowd, so close at 9pm), so I decided to give Inversion a go, since I'd heard good things.
Now, I judge coffee shops by their lattes. A passable latte requires some amount of training, care, and craft. If a coffee shop doesn't make a decent latte, they are demonstrating a lack in all three of those departments, at very least.
So the verdict on Inversion: not good. One of the worst lattes I've had, in fact. The milk was WAY too hot, and the espresso had any number of defects, beginning with being watery and bitter. Very disappointing, and really very unfortunate. It's just not that hard to make a decent latte... not a great one, but a decent one. You need to be able to pull a decent shot of espresso. You need clean equipment. You need to understand what you're doing to the milk, and what happens when it gets too hot (i.e. much above 155°). And you need to care.
So I stick to my current belief that Catalina is the only good espresso house in Houston. I've yet to find another (but I'm trying to slowly give the others a fair evaluation).
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coffee, houston, inversion
Caroline Collective is Houston's first dedicated co-working space, and the grand opening party is tomorrow! Check it out!
I got the tour yesterday, very cool... I'll at least be one of the regular freeloaders. :)
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coworking, caroline collective, houston
I went to a meetup at Catalina Coffee (best coffee in Houston) for CoffeeGeek users this afternoon, and it was great fun... lots of great coffee and conversation.
Kudos to Max (Catalina's owner) for being devoted to quality coffee and for helping build a coffee community here in Houston.
I forget what the bean was, but we got to compare the same coffee brewed in a Chemex, a FETCO extractor, and French press. The Chemex brew was light and flavorful, but my personal preference was for the FETCO or the press... both had more body. The Chemex is almost tea-like. I could definitely see using all three (the FETCO being definitely a commercial unit).
As always, the lattes were beautiful and delicious:
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coffee, coffeegeek
Finally, some good espresso in Houston! Catalina Coffee (on Washington between Studemont and 45) has produced hands down the best latte I've had in Houston. And they even did latte art. My preference would have been for more espresso in the large, but still it was delicious, if mild, and had great foam structure.
I talked to the guy who runs the place (Max) for a bit, and really liked his attitude and commitment to quality coffee. So please inundate this place with business!
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coffee, houston
Day 1 was lots of fun. We saw Champ Car qualifying and the IMSA/ALMS practice, among other things. These are the Champ Cars... click for larger versions.
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