I’m back y’all. Well, not physically back. It looks like I’ll be spending a lot of time away from the greatest city and state in the world over the next few months. But I’m back here, on this website, writing another blog post that sort of has to do with Houston or coffee or something.

LIFE UPDATES…I got a new phone! Because my old one “stopped making phone calls” or whatever. I was going to just keep it but my friends were starting to get annoyed. So I am now the proud owner of a super overpriced iPhone that takes slightly better pictures! And I’ve gotten slightly better at VSCO, so get ready for the overall quality of this thing to get…slightly higher! Clearly this is a super professional operation I’m running here.

I promise there will be more pointless personal anecdotes at the end of this, but first let me tell you about some new-ish coffee places I’ve been to since my last post!

Xela

There’s a brand new coffee place in EaDo and I am SO EXCITED! (Is it ‘Eado’ or 'EaDo?’ They look equally stupid in print. I still cringe every time I say it.) Xela has been around for a while now; I’ve seen it sold at several other coffee shops, but their brick and mortar location just opened in early 2019. I think I was there on day three. Like, they were still working on one of the murals on the side of the building. It’s more of a coffee stand…there is some seating on the side and in the back but it’s all outdoors. This coffee is good though. SO GOOD.

Amaya

I think the novelty of Finn Hall is starting to wear off, plus there are about six hundred more food hall concepts in the works for Houston. But Finn Hall is the home of Amaya, which means there are now officially FOUR actually good coffee shops within walking distance of the building where I (occasionally) work (for reference, when I started working at said building, there was only one). Amaya also serves their coffee in some of the most Instagrammable to-go cups in Houston (a blog post I’m sure I’ll get around to writing someday).

Slowpokes

Speaking of Instagrammable to-go cups…Slowpokes recently opened a new location in Upper Kirby! As you know, since I know all of you religiously follow this blog and memorize everything I say, the original Slowpokes is one of my favorites for productivity / hanging out / sloth-themed decor and to-go cups. The new one looks a whole lot like the original, serves the same good coffee (and wine and beer), and most importantly, has the same sloth theme. And, selfishly, it is much more convenient for me to get to!

Maggie May / Black Dog Records

This place just popped up a few months ago at a strip center on 19th Street in the Heights, and it’s basically a little record store with a coffee shop in it. Don’t get me wrong…I am ALL ABOUT this concept. The coffee was nothing special, but the record store vibe is more of the draw anyway. There was plenty of space to hang out and get some work done, and the wifi was fast. Also, whoever was in charge of picking the music the day I was there (vinyls, obviously) was clearly on the same wavelength as me. Pink Floyd’s Wish You Were Here and Led Zeppelin’s Houses of the Holy, from start to finish. Just perfect.

Common Grounds

Let’s get this out of the way…it really throws me off that this place is called Common Grounds. To me, the only Common Grounds is the one in Waco, Texas, and it is the exact opposite vibe of this place. I suppose it’s not THAT original of a name for a coffee shop though. Anyway, I digress. The Houston Common Grounds is located inside an office building downtown, and it took me FOREVER to find because it’s on the skybridge level, not the lobby. So my afternoon coffee break the day I decided to venture over here took slightly longer than I intended…oops. It’s in a beautiful space though, and I was offered a selection of several different (kind of expensive) pour over coffee options. The barista was super helpful and told me all about them, and whatever I ended up picking (I forgot what it was, sorry) was really good. Next time I need an extended coffee break from work, I’ll definitely be back.

Some Old Favorites

Like I’m going to go a whole blog post without talking about either of these places. Come on.

Other Nonsense

New year new mural! Not sure how I feel about it, but we weren’t going to NOT take this picture…

BASEBALL IS BAAAAAAAACK! The Astros are off to a solid start, but I do have some thoughts / concerns, and most of them involve Wade Miley. Jury’s still out on him. I could and most definitely will soon write an entire blog post on the way-too-early-in-the-season outlook for the greatest baseball team on earth, but not today. I will say, however, that the pre- post-game food and drink situation near the stadium has improved even more since last season and I am LOVING IT. There will definitely be a post about this (also just watch my Insta story every weekend the Astros are in town), because this is the type of information you really need to know.

I could tell you exactly where it is and save you the trouble, but what’s the fun in that?! Jk. The bridge is Over Allen Parkway justttttt west of downtown.

I keep seeing this bridge with the locks on it on Instagram, and I have been trying to find it for MONTHS. I like going on walks around the Buffalo Bayou area when the weather is nice, and I try to find this thing every time, to no avail. I was hoping to just kind of “stumble upon it,” but finally gave up and did an actually pretty extensive Google search. Apparently I was not even remotely close to the right location. But I found it now and got the cool pic! And it’s definitely not super pathetic that I went and found this bridge just for Instagram, because I also got a bunch of steps in. So it was for health, really.

Alright, that’s all I’ve got for now. Stay tuned for more exciting content coming soon! Actually, given my track record here, I can’t promise there will be any new content here any time soon, let alone exciting content. But I do have hundreds of pictures taking up gigabytes of space on my absurdly overpriced phone just begging to be posted on this site with some super clever and insightful commentary. So…we’ll see.

<3 liz