Missing in action?

It's been a long 2 years of "fasting" specialty coffee (SC).  If you weren't aware of what has been going on in our lives, my wife and I moved back to New England following the death of my stepdad.  I knew moving up here would necessarily involve a significant change in lifestyle and priorities, but I did not know how wide-reaching those changes would affect us.  In two years, we have made many friends but have discovered that where we live is a near-vacuum for SC, with a few notable exceptions.


New England is famous for being central to most of everything, two hours to the city, an hour to the mountains, an hour and a half to the ocean, half an hour to the country... What more could you want?  Where else would anyone else want to live?  Well, I have discovered that I am further from a SC shop than I ever was in Oklahoma.  We finally broke our fast after a long period of time and set out to discovering coffee shops in our area, but came up either empty handed or with shops that were very much wanting in the areas of craft-made, excellent-quality SC.  Some would argue with us and say, "How could you say that about Hartford county?  There are plenty of good coffee shops!"  Yes, good coffee shops, but not ones that meet my (sometimes Frasier Crane-like) standards.

Thankfully, one of my wife's coworkers recommended a lovely SC shop in Glastonbury called So G Coffee.  We have built Karen McGee's shop into our weekly routine for quite sometime now and have found an extended family in her and her staff; they are truly amazing people, and that is a testament to the owner herself.  My biggest beef is that I have to drive 25 minutes every weekend to get there, but that is not as much of a complaint as it is a lament.  If I had the power to, I would pick up my house and plop it next door to Nay Aug Plaza in South Glastonbury, but alas I am merely mortal.

Now again is a season of transition.  My wife and I are moving yet again, back to the South again.  Admittedly, I have already begun looking for a new coffee shop and found one within walking/biking distance.  We'll see how things go, but we may be starting up the review machine again if our new area has a good coffee culture.  Thanks for your readership these past few years, and I look forward to giving you more quality reviews as time goes forward.

If you know of any outstanding coffee houses in the Raleigh, NC area, post them in the comments below and I would be glad to pay them a visit!