Cars and Coffee 2.0
Something in me found it very unappealing to stand around on a parking lot in the windy cold with a shit coffee served in a paper cup looking at other peoples not so cool rental cars.
I have to admit, I've never been to a Cars and Coffee meeting when they were populair. Even though I like coffee and cars, something in me found it very unappealing to stand around on a parking lot in the windy cold with a shit coffee served in a paper cup looking at other peoples not so cool rental cars.
Call me sane, but I like good coffee and a nice, comfortable environment to enjoy being in the presence of great hunks of metal and rubber. Until now I always thought these places only existed in my mind. Strangely enough, through a Big Time video in which presenter Jeremiah was putting fuel in a super car, I found out they exist outside my head too. While Jeremiah was fueling, I noticed a black building in the background which had Motoring Coffee plastered on it. This was way more exciting to me than a dude fueling a super car.
It also triggered a weird thing I sometimes feel the need to do: find out where people make their video's. To do this, I take landmarks in the background and try to find them on Google Maps. Motoring Coffee motivated me even more to find the location, because triggered my weird need to try coffee's from all kinds of places. So not only did I want to find out where Jeremiah was standing, I also wanted some Motoring Coffee for myself. What I found was way more exciting.
As it turns out Motoring Coffee is a chain of specialty coffee places in which cars are on display. A place where you can sit down on a comfortable chair or sofa, with some good coffee, maybe even a snack or a sandwich and just stare at that weird line on the 1973 Alfa Romea GTA-1300 Junior on display. You can just let your mind wonder about the design choices where made and why some features were chosen or not, enjoy a nice sip of Moto Coffee's selection of home roasted coffee's
I mean, that looks like the perfect place to work, stand around, meet friends, be creative, doesn't it? I think I could spend days on end here.
I did however find an issue with Motoring Coffee. My commute would be a bit long. I mean, I do like Los Angeles, but hopping on an eleven hour flight to look at a car while drinking coffee is a bit excessive. Thankfully Instagram came to the rescue and suggested Rare Street Coffee to me. Very similar in idea, maybe even a bit more cozy vibes, and more important: way closer to where I am. Only a two hour flight or a nine hour drive. Rare Street Coffee has multiple locations in Switzerland.
I mean, look at this. Tell me you wouldn't like sitting here for lunch.
Rare Street Coffee, even though I haven't been there yet, has already captured a place in my heart. They have special burger days. They do their own smash burgers on a open fire plancha. God Dammit, could it get any better? Cars, coffee, burgers, fire and vibes is all you need, right? No, turns out, you need to be driving cars too. And they offer that too, sometimes. They organise test drives right in front of their place. You could even stay in shape there. Somehow they found the connection between cars, coffee and pilates. Yes, pilates. No, I don't see it either, but you can't deny exercising is also made better while looking at a Jaguar E-Type, right?
We need more places like these two examples. More places where good coffee and good vibes are spread with the help of car culture, or maybe the other way around. Where car culture is made a bit more accessible through good coffee and good vibes. A place where you don't have to prove your car knowledge and credentials at the front door before being allowed entrance. More places where you can just enjoy looking at a Porsche without having to know if it's a 992.2, 964 or a 997, and just being allowed to think it still looks like a squashed VW Bug with the engine in the wrong place without being banned.
Yeah, that last one is just me again, right? God dammit...
In other news:
Did you know Formula 1 is about to start again? Then again, it might not if we're to believe the drivers. Starting seems to be an issue. Overtaking too. Even having fun driving won't be possible this year. Or maybe, just maybe, they should just remove all the sand bags from their cars and try again. All that gossip being slung into the world before a new season starts, is the same every year. "Others are better, because our car is shit", according to every driver. And every year everybody believes those words and acts all surprised when it turns out they were all lying and all have magically disappeared at the start of the first race of the year. Either way, I'm not getting up at 5 a.m. next Sunday to watch the Australian GP. I'll be watching the replay from bed a bit later in the morning.
I also recently found out Forza Motorsport is dying. Microsoft has lied to us. They told us the latest version would be a continuously updated game. It would only get better over time. And by better they mean more unalive, apparently. Shame. I've unsubscribed from GamePass to give Microsoft the finger. Which stands comfortably along the other erected one because Windows still is a hideous product nobody likes or wants to use.
