Write Out at the Supreme Bean

For this Write Out trip, I promised myself both an excursion by car and a visit to a place I’ve never seen before. A suggestion from a Great Friend led me to the Supreme Bean Coffee Café. I went out because I was having trouble tearing myself away from the sunshine to write. As usual, taking my laptop to a place where I couldn’t leave it to take a walk was a good way to stay on task.

Here are the standard details for the Supreme Bean Coffee Café:

Address: 1205 Washington Street, Bellingham, WA
WiFi: free, secured
Music: quiet, varied styles
Tables: eight tables
Outlets: available for five tables
Clientele: local
Gluten-free options: no bread, but there are salads
Hours: 6am-5pm M- Fri, 7am-4pm Sat, 9am-2pm Sun
12-oz cappuccino price: $2.95 plus tax
Time allowed: 2+ hours
Parking: free in their lot
Loyalty card: yes; buy 10, get one free
Website: http://www.supreme-bean.com/

The Supreme Bean sits on the corner of Broadway and Elm, on a triangular parcel of land with numerous out-arrows painted on the pavement. The arrows kindly prevented me from driving the wrong way on the drive-thru lane, so I appreciated them. I finally found ingress, and the parking was plentiful and free.

The café benefits from lots of windows on the sunny side; I suspect that the Supreme Bean is much brighter than many venues when the clouds roll in. Five tables line the walls, and three share a long slatted bench. There’s plenty of elbow room, and you can fit two laptops onto the small tables.

I ordered a mocha and a pink-frosted shortbread cookie, which combined to jazz me up rather quickly. I had a lot more energy than my laptop, so it was great to have outlets between each pair of wall tables. I tried out the WiFi for the review, and it was fast. The music was quiet and not at all distracting.

There are toys on a shelf here, which I take as a good sign: If some parent won’t quiet an obstreperous kid, just give it a toy, and go back to work. There were no children in evidence when I was Writing Out, so I don’t know what effect they might have on one’s writing. I can tell you that the staff interact with their customers and know them by name, which adds to my experience. If you’re J.D. Salinger, that approach to doing business might drive you away.

The place is called a “coffee café” for a reason. Like the Colophon, it’s a hybrid venue. There’s a substantial food menu, as you can see on their website. I bought a turkey sandwich. Their sandwiches are made to order, as in a sub shop. Mine came on Dave’s Killer Bread, which I can endorse as great bread (without making a specific endorsement of the overall food, which is not my purpose here). As with my drink, the staff worked hard to make my food experience perfect.

With food and drink available, you can settle in comfortably for a long writing session. Do they want you to write there? Absolutely. Come early and stay late.

I had a productive session in a good work atmosphere. Since I will, by definition, be visiting a lot of places for the first time, I’ll be glad if most of the visits go this well.

And what have I accomplished this week, between my Writing In and my Writing Out? Sigh. I spent a lot of the week writing lesson plans, which doesn’t get me even an inch closer to completing any of the things I’m writing. However, I bumped into a short story that I had misfiled on my laptop, and I’m glad to have it back in the queue of projects. What I took away from this writing session is the value of occasionally inspecting my hard drive and flash drives for stories I’ve lost.

What have you written this week? Talk to you soon!