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Monthly Archives: March 2013

Drink, Food, Restaurant, Review

Restaurant Review: The SweetSpot

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Located along Whitewater Street, near the Cravath lakefront, is Whitewater’s principal coffee shop: The SweetSpot at 226 West Whitewater. There are other places in town for coffee, and until recently there were even more, but The SweetSpot now occupies a preeminent place.

So what shall one simply say about this much-touted coffee shop, of which Whitewater has heard so many good things? This, directly expressed: that The SweetSpot lives up to its favorable reputation, and is deserving of one’s patronage.

Coffee (Ancora), tea (Rishi), sodas and water, smoothies, and sweet coffee drinks: a full offering, carefully chosen and properly prepared. Both Ancora and Rishi are sound choices. Ancora’s from Madison, and along with Intelligensia (Chicago, elsewhere) it’s one of the better choices for coffee in our area. (A few small, competing Wisconsin roasters offer only undrinkable, failed efforts. There’s not a lot of good coffee in Wisconsin.)

Needless to say, if the coffee’s not right, little else matters. With Ancora, the coffee’s right. In my experience, the preparation and presentation of coffee and tea at the SweetSpot has been right, too. I’ve not once had an inadequate cup.

It’s a barista who’s responsible for the coffee (and strictly speaking, only the coffee, but few shops are so specialized). Baristas (baristi) often perform all sorts of roles, and they are thereby even more important to a shop than a waiter is to a restaurant. They greet, prepare drinks, and engage customers: when one says that a coffee shop depends on coffee, one means it truly depends on the preparation and presentation of the coffee.

That dual role requires skill and charm: it’s not enough to be technically correct. One must also be engaging. The baristas at The SweetSpot have been, in my visits for this review, engaging, friendly, and welcoming. (Candidly, I’d much rather endure a poor waiter over a poor barista.)

The conversation between a patron and barista will be brief, but it should be charming, happy, and light. That’s been true of my visits. (The biggest demand on any independent coffee shop, by the way, is finding a consistent charm among new baristas hired; coffee chains don’t even try, and it’s a reason they offer only an inferior experience.)

The SweetSpot is a two-room coffee shop, of a main room of about six tables, a second room of eight or so tables and a sofa, with a counter facing the lakefront along the windows in the main room. In the summer, there’s room on the shop’s front porch for outdoor seating. The interior tables and chairs are solid and convey a soft, American-country feel. The walls display prints and photographs, nicely arrayed.

One walks in to see two pastry cases to the right, espresso and coffee immediately behind, and another case for sodas, water, and juice to the near left. As with many other shops, the menu appears on slate boards behind the cases.

Pastries are freshly baked, and the shop offers bagels, muffins, croissants, cupcakes, scones, tarts, and cakes (including those for order). I’d recommend the raspberry cream cheese croissant, served warm.

Breakfast is an all-day offering, of sandwiches, oatmeal, juice, and yogurt. The lunch menu presents choices of deli sandwiches, Panini, wraps, salads, soup, and children’s offerings.

Beyond coffee and tea, The SweetSpot serves smoothies and blended coffee drinks, although I’ve sampled neither for this review.

I’m sure there’s a coffee shop somewhere in North America without wi-fi, but I’ve yet to find it. The SweetSpot doesn’t have that unfortunate distinction: there’s a wi-fi connection, and there are sure to be patrons with laptops surfing on it.

Easily recommended.

Enjoy.

LOCATION: 226 West Whitewater Street , Whitewater, WI 53190 (262) 262-473-5080. See, Google Map and directions embedded at the beginning of this review.

OPEN: Mon-Thr 6 AM-9PM, Fri 6 AM-7 PM, Sat & Sun 7AM -7 PM.

PRICES: Sandwich, coffee, pastry for under $10.

RESERVATIONS: Unnecessary.

DRINKS: Coffee, tea, juice, sodas, smoothies.

SOUND: Moderate volume of background music.

SERVICE: Friendly baristas.

VISITS: Three (morning, afternoon, evening).

RATING: Recommended.

GoldStarGoldStarGoldStarGoldStar1

RATING SCALE: From one to four stars, representing the full experience of food, atmosphere, service, and pricing.

INDEPENDENCE: This review is delivered without financial or other connection to the establishment or its owner. The dining experience was that of an ordinary patron, without notice to the staff or requests for special consideration.

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 3.20.12

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Good morning.

Spring arrives in Whitewater, on a day with chance of snow showers and a high of nineteen. (Monday, March 18th is the most recent day to have a snowfall accumulation of at least an inch.)

Whitewater’s Tech Park Board meets today at 8 AM.

CNN asks if this is the best golf shot ever:

Looking at it from this vantage, I’d say it’s very good, indeed.

On this day in 1778, Americans meet a (French) king:

Benjamin Franklin, Silas Deane and Arthur Lee present themselves to France’s King Louis XVI as official representatives of the United States on this day in 1778. Louis XVI was skeptical of the fledgling republic, but his dislike of the British eventually overcame these concerns and France officially recognized the United States in February 1778.

Some of the great ironies of the American Revolution lay in the relationship between the new United States and the French. In 1774, when Parliament decided to offer religious toleration and judicial autonomy to French-speaking Catholics in Quebec, North American colonists expressed horror at the notion of empowered French Catholics on their borders. In 1778, though, Franklin, Deane and Lee, all proponents of democratic government, were delighted at the prospect that the French Catholic monarchy, ruling by divine right, would come to their aid in a war against British parliamentary rule.

On this day in 1854, the Republicans are born:

On this date Free Soilers and Whigs outraged by the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, met in Ripon to consider forming a new political party. The meeting’s organizer, Alvan E. Bovay, proposed the name “Republican” which had been suggested by New York editor Horace Greeley. You can see eyewitness accounts of the meeting, early Republican campaign documents, and other original sources on our page devoted to Wisconsin and the Republican Party. Though other places have claimed themselves as the birthplace of the Republican Party, this was the earliest meeting held for the purpose and the first to use the term Republican. [Source: History of Wisconsin, II: 218-219]

Google tests one’s knowledge of Russian monuments: “In the Russian monument of the founder of Moscow, which hand is he holding out to the side?”

Beautiful Whitewater, City, Good Ideas, Local Government, Weather

Walk the City

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Spring will arrive soon. Whitewater, Wisconsin is a small town. Even more conveniently, it’s a small town with an easily-walked, accessible downtown, west-side business district, and compact neighborhoods.

In a time of warmer weather, there will be fitting opportunities to explore the city on foot. Whitewater’s full-time leaders – and especially her city manager — should be out and about walking through the city’s downtown and neighborhoods weekly.

Nothing about the city should be managed solely from behind a desk.

A person walking through different neighborhoods, regularly, will see more than the occasional visit, and far more than a trip by car (let alone a phone call).

Some will say this is unnecessary, and when they say it’s unnecessary, they’ll be right.

It isn’t necessary; it’s simply beneficial and prudent.

A leader walking through the city will see more, learn more, and establish a reservoir of good will for his or her efforts.

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 3.19.13

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Good morning.

Tuesday brings a high of twenty-six, and gradually clearing skies.

Common Council meets tonight at 6:30 PM.

A decade ago, the Iraq war begins:

On this day in 2003, the United States, along with coalition forces primarily from the United Kingdom, initiates war on Iraq. Just after explosions began to rock Baghdad, Iraq’s capital, U.S. President George W. Bush announced in a televised address, “At this hour, American and coalition forces are in the early stages of military operations to disarm Iraq, to free its people and to defend the world from grave danger.” President Bush and his advisors built much of their case for war on the idea that Iraq, under dictator Saddam Hussein, possessed or was in the process of building weapons of mass destruction.

On 3.19.1865, Wisconsin soldiers fought in a campaign against the Carolinas:

1865 – (Civil War) Battle of Goldsborough, North Carolina, Begins
The 21st, 22nd and 25th Wisconsin Infantry regiments took part in the battle at Goldsborough, North Carolina, during the Campaign of the Carolinas. Three Union armies totaling 100,000 men attacked the city in order to control its strategically important railroad lines.

Google-a-Day asks about Roman mythology: “Of the Romans “group of three” gods in the Archaic Triad, which one did not have a Greek counterpart?”

City, Local Government, Politics

The Candidates’ Forum

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Some of Whitewater’s political candidates – running for Common Council – attended a Saturday, 3.16.13 forum at city hall.

It ran from ten to a bit after eleven. (Readers wishing statements from the candidates may visit lwvwhitewater.org.) Below are overall impressions from the event. I’ll write more later about topics raised between now and the election on April 2nd.

Writing about the city these several years, one sees some things old, some things new.

Articulate, educated candidates. Whitewater doesn’t lack for smart, educated, articulate candidates, as she certainly doesn’t lack for those traits among her residents. Although I’d say that the city’s supposed, few hundred people-of-influence are less capable than her residents, her political candidates don’t have this disadvantage – it’s a solid group.

However the election turns out, the next Council will not lack for raw ability, as the present one does not.

The mental tics of the town. It’s neither intellect nor education that holds the city back – it’s a cultural ethos that insists all is well, when it’s manifestly not. There’s also a problem with a small minority of residents who have no interest in, or understanding of, what due diligence requires – they accept every sugary story at face value.

Errors and flimsy claims about the Innovation Center. You know, there just aren’t a lot of people who walk about praising Pickett’s Charge, the design of the Edsel, or Pauly Shore as an Academy Award contender.

Whitewater’s insiders are more certain or stubborn. They’ll praise this multi-million-dollar exercise in crony capitalism and empty symbolism to the end. They’re really only saying it for each other these days — these claims are uncompelling to anyone who can (1) read, (2) write, (3) count, (4) assess competing needs, or (5) just plain spot empty puffery when he or she sees it.

It’s not magic to see through this project (or others even worse): it’s simply applying sound reasoning of the kind ordinary residents of the city do every day.

Let’s be clear: the project cost over eleven million in public money, not three million. The city alone floated millions in bond debt, and the federal government spent still more. Those who believe in this deal should be candid about what it takes to assess it properly — one needs to count at least to eleven (million).

Touting twelve jobs of uncertain duration, by the way, is far short of the promise made to the Economic Development Administration to deliver a thousand jobs.

If I’ve a table to sell for a thousand dollars, a buyer’s actual offer of twelve dollars with a vague promise of ‘more on the way’ would be unpersuasive.

Attendance. About twenty people attended, exclusive of the candidates and a few representatives of the sponsoring organization. That’s little more than one tenth of one-percent of the city’s population.

One could say that’s a sign of how happy people are, of course: they’ve no concerns about local politics at all. Possible, but improbable, as (1) we have significant, chronic challenges, and (2) even an entire population drugged with sedatives wouldn’t be this complacent.

The event was well-organized; attracting attendees is really a matter of restoring confidence in a realistic politics.

What to consider. People who attend a forum like this do so with their own standards by which to evaluate it. Here’s what I think about: (1) what the candidates say substantively, (2) how they sound (confident or tentative), (3) how the audience reacts (gestures, glances, nearby discussions, etc,), and (4) how the candidates look (this is usually not a consideration at a forum, as people typically dress professionally for special events).

What one says, and how confidently one says it, matters a great deal for any discussion over a few minutes. If the discussion is very brief, and if ephemeral rather than repeated, appearance means more. The Saturday forum was long enough so that anyone watching would feel a greater impression from content and delivery than mere appearance.

Part way. We’re part way to something different in Whitewater: the city’s evolving despite a few yearning to encase it in amber, and declare it an everlasting exemplar of unmatched wisdom.

We’ve a mixture, side-by-side: some who have advanced change, some who want change, some who claim all is well, some more ideological, some less so.

We have problems, and it’s a measure of love and respect for our community to call them such when one sees them. (Of all our problems, this one is the worst of all: the nutty insistence that to mention problems is itself a problem. No one in the city owes anyone else complacency, mediocrity, or soothing tales.)

And yet, for it all, I’d say the city has better prospects than she did a decade ago, or even five years ago. It’s the transition from ‘everything’s wonderful’ to ‘we can do better.’

Much yet to do, but there’s no going back.

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 3.18.12

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Good morning.

Monday brings snow during the day, with a high of thirty-five. If the National Weather Service is right, accumulation will be less than one inch. We’ll see.

The city’s Library Board meets tonight at 6:30 PM.

On this day in 1890, the Wisconsin Supreme Court rules against reading the Bible in public classrooms:

1890 – Bible Prohibited from Wisconsin Schools

On this date a Rock County circuit court decision which had permitted the Bible to be read in classrooms was overturned by the Wisconsin Supreme Court. In 1889 a group of Edgerton citizens brought suit against their school board for allowing area teachers to read the Bible in class. They contested the teacher’s use of the Douay version which, they claimed, differed materially from the King James translation. The case was tried in the circuit court of Rock County. The judge denied the petition and ruled that “reading the Bible was not sectarian and was, therefore, lawful and proper.” The case was appealed to the Supreme Court which handed down a decision that reversed the circuit court and held “the use of any version of the Bible as textbook in the public schools” violated the Constitution. [Source: Wis. Court System, “Famous Cases of the Supreme Court”]

Google-a-Day asks a politics and science question: “What cabinet position had been held by the head of the commission that investigated the STS-51L disaster?”

Twitter

Recent Tweets, 3.10 to 3.16

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Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 3.17.13

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Good morning.

Sunday in Whitewater: mostly sunny, a high of thirty-one, with 12 hours of sunlight, and 12h 56m of daylight.

From the deepest place in my heart, loving advice: avoid the Greyhound bus from Atlantic City to New York.

On this day in 1776, the British retreat from Boston:

…British forces are forced to evacuate Boston following General George Washington’s successful placement of fortifications and cannons on Dorchester Heights, which overlooks the city from the south.

During the evening of March 4, American Brigadier General John Thomas, under orders from Washington, secretly led a force of 800 soldiers and 1,200 workers to Dorchester Heights and began fortifying the area. To cover the sound of the construction, American cannons, besieging Boston from another location, began a noisy bombardment of the outskirts of the city. By the morning, more than a dozen cannons from Fort Ticonderoga had been brought within the Dorchester Heights fortifications. British General Sir William Howe hoped to use the British ships in Boston Harbor to destroy the American position, but a storm set in, giving the Americans ample time to complete the fortifications and set up their artillery. Realizing their position was now indefensible, 11,000 British troops and some 1,000 Loyalists departed Boston by ship on March 17, sailing to the safety of Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Today in 1941,

General Mitchell Field Named

On this date Milwaukee’s airport was named to honor the city’s famous air-power pioneer, General William Mitchell. [Source: History Just Ahead: A Guide to Wisconsin’s Historical Markers edited by Sarah Davis McBride]

Focus is the subject Google-a-Day’s question: “What book and DVD by the Director of Sport Psychology for the University of Missouri, talks about “focus” as the key to a winning team?”