The Coffeehouse Experience, Part 7
I’ve come to love the third Tuesday of each month for I get to visit places I’ve never been while I wait to go into work. My day starts out with an early morning networking meeting followed by a trip to a local coffeehouse to write before I head to my office.
I was really looking forward to today’s stop, Tucker & Co. Bakery Café because I’ve heard so many good things about the business and the menu offerings. Today wasn’t my first official visit though. I stopped a few months prior and had to nix my visit because there were so many people inside. Not the case today.
What I liked most about this place, built from the bones of an old home in the quaint town of Dillsburg, PA, was its menu. Aside from the typical coffee & tea items you’d expect to find at a café, you also have access to several interesting pastries. All the baked goods are gluten and dairy-free, which is music to this gluten sensitive person’s ears. The items I ordered were delicious and did not taste at all like the typical gluten-free pastries I’ve had elsewhere, thank goodness. I also like that Tucker & Co. source a lot of their ingredients from local farms. Another plus is the owners are heavily community oriented and the bakery café is part of a larger initiative to improve the area. Tucker & Co. hosts informational and entertaining events on a regular basis. For full disclosure here, I’ll add that I will be speaking at one of those events later this year.
So, from a consumer’s point of view, Tucker & Co. is a wonderful place to be. But, from a writer’s POV, the place poses a challenge. The bakery café’s indoor seating area is very limited, which adds to the coziness factor but doesn’t do much good for a writer who needs enough space to spread out. Had it been a cooler day, I would’ve sat outside where there is ample seating. Plus, due to the space issue, it doesn’t take much for things to get noisy, and it surely was clamorous enough to be distracting. Noise-cancelling headphones would be a must here.
Another downside is I didn’t see anywhere to plug in my laptop. Maybe I’m spoiled here for I cannot expect every business to cater to the needs of a writer. But having an electrical source nearby is pretty darn convenient. Luckily, mine had a full charge but I could see this becoming a problem. Note to Self: Get that backup battery I’ve been hesitating to buy.
If you decide to come here to get in some writing, make sure you bring a backup power source, consider visiting early in the week like on a Monday or Tuesday morning perhaps and sit outside if the weather cooperates. Maybe this isn’t the spot for me to get in some real writing, but it’d be ideal for just having a hot cup of goodness and a think about writing projects, especially in one of the many seats outside. It’s definitely a place to people watch, get inspiration and sample some yummy gluten and dairy-free food.
My Writerly Grade: B-
The hunt for my perfect writing location continues….
Write & Rise, my friends!
