Murky's Coffee

Murky's (7th and Pennsylvania SE) is the quiet alternative to Starbucks. It has all that you would expect from a coffee shop: well-dressed professional men who make it a point to lay out all of their technological gadgets, office-type ladies who insist on wearing skirts in 35 mph winds, and backpacking college students like me who are eager for their legal drug of choice.

Murky's has a simple sign on its patio: "Serving the people of Washington with the best damn cup of coffee possible". I was pleased to find that an expletive had found its way into their marketing campaign.

What was even more pleasing was ordering my cup of java. Instead of saying "tall" (and receiving something that is anything but tall), I could get by with an easy "small coffee, please".

If you're ever up for a good time, ask one of the employees at Starbucks what "venti" means. It's like handing them a Rubik's cube. I once suggested to my coffee artiste that venti might mean 20 ounces, especially since venti is Italian for twenty.

He scoffed and informed me that it actually meant extra-large.

So what the hell do I know?