The Best Cup A Joe in Louisville...........drumroll...............

After a year of riding around in Marilynn our family fun machine Penelope and I have a winner!

going from one gin joint to another er ahhh Coffee House to another, my daughter and I have decided that first off we have had some amazing cups of Joe. From the cup at Vint that we made the unfortunate choice of sitting outside under a tree with a cup that was uncovered that ended up with some extra better spice....thanks little birdie, to the short lived coffee house in the Shelbyville Road Plaza that had the motto thanks for your money now go home, (by the way, the best way to get people to come back is to serve a good product smile, ohh and keep the heat in the restaurant under 100 blinking degrees!) I can tell you that this decission has not been an easy one, some weekend days and several after school days I forced my daughter to go from Coffee House to Coffee House trying things like a salty turtle caramel late, to a pumpkin spice late! To the bird dropping coffee special of the day. Well, who is the winner? it is a tie it comes down to Heine Brothers, and Breadworks, and specific locations as well. For Breadworks its the one on Brownsboro next to Chenoweth Elementary School and the old Dolls Market, why? Well the owner is a very special nice lady who is not pretentious, most days you wouldn't even know she is the owner. She enjoys being there, you can tell from her bouncy happy personality to her almost freakish memorization of how you like your coffee. the extra's like the breads, muffins, bear claws, chocolate croissants, and hot cross buns are of course awesome as all get out. Their Coffee is very good, not great, but very good. What makes a Coffee Shop an awesome place is ambiance, the ability to go in relax engage in chit chat or not and for the owners and or employee's to know the difference. Breadworks to use an old phrase that will date me, well they got it going on! Let me also say that Breadworks has been engaging in fair trade practices in the coffee trade since before it was fashionable and Penelope and I were always smiling at each other when we would see another Coffee Shop had put up a fair trade brochure. This is my Coffee Cohort in crime my little girl Penelope :-) sitting in Marilynn, on our way to a coffee shop!

Then there is Heine Brothers Coffee, the location I have always gone to is on Chenoweth Lane Off Shelbyville Road in the heart of St. Matthews. Great Coffee, great staff, but always busy almost too busy, but here is where I get very excited, you see a couple of months ago they opened a new location at the end of my road!!!!!!!! Does life get any better than that? They have staffed this location with some greats. The Coffee is Awesome the ambiance is pretty good, the service is first rate, the variety of drinks available is pretty extensive but here is the whopper,do you just want a great cup of coffee? I don't mean a mocha latte fruity bag a nutty whip the frothed girly drink in the cup to go on the way to Pilates. I mean a cup of coffee, that's all just a great cup of coffee? They do it just as awesome as the aforementioned girly drinks. The first time we went in they asked how we like our coffee, do we like sugar do we like cream do we like our cream stirred into the coffee. Guess what? They remember it too. I think the best part of the great coffee hunt for the best cup a Joe and the best coffee house in Louisville was that I got to do it with my little girl, who will always be my little girl, but who is growing so fast that she is about to be a freshman in high school, she really isn't a little girl, she isn't yet fully grown and she still kisses me goodbye and hello in front of her friends. I hope that we continue the coffee shop weekends and most of all the talks over the cup of Joe and yes just sometimes sitting there reading books while we sit in silence over the perfect cup of coffee. It has been the best part of the whole near year long process, I highly recommend it to other Dads. To my father in law Jim, I know that you are looking down from heaven, you were right, find something to do with her and listen more than I talk......you were right, and I miss you friend.

Kevin M. Jankoski

I know this Blog post has veered way off of the trac of normal for me, but I needed a feel good fluff piece to restore my love of the human race lol seriously, I wanted to share a little bit about how wonderful my little girl is and a great idea for spending time with her and getting to know her better.