Where, in this Latte Nation of ours, can purists get a good old-fashioned cup of coffee?

By TONI RUBERTO
News Staff Reporter
3/28/2003

If a dollar and a dream can make you a millionaire, why can't they get you a good cup of coffee?
That aromatic velvety brown liquid that restaurants pour so willingly becomes a different beast in trendy coffee venues where refills stop, lines are unexplicably long, the prices rise along with the noise, and the quality isn't all you might like.

And why doesn't anyone serve coffee anymore? Now even the corner gas station and movie theaters serve it with a fancy name. Wilson Farms has billboards proclaiming the best cup going is its Ja-Va-Na (also available at Tops store). At some Mobil gas stations, you can fill up on a cup from one of up to 15 carafes holding different varieties of Green Mountain brew for an affordable 99 cents to $1.29 (other Mobils have Tim Horton's); Sisters Hospital has a Caffe Aroma kiosk in the main lobby; and in The Buffalo News' cafeteria we don't drink just coffee, but Cafe Via.

What's being missed here is that coffee lovers just want a great old-fashioned cup of coffee - whatever it's called.

More...