While living in Florida, I discovered that I love coffee shops.  They were a great place for meeting clients or friends, and I always ran into people I knew.  If I can be within bicycling or walking distance to a coffee shop for the rest of my life, I can be happy.  Today, my office was Panera for a few hours while I waited for my stepson to get done with soccer practice.  I nursed a chai tea latte while working on promotional materials for myself.

But my favorite coffee shops are local coffee shops.  Let me give you an example of what happens at a local coffee shop that won’t happen at Panera.  The Coffee Exchange posted their special today on Facebook, and it was a really delicious sounding salad with strawberries and pecans.  So, I replied to the post with “Thank you! Now I know what I’m having for lunch!!!! I’ll be over around noon.”  I included a winky face emoticon.

When I arrived at noon and asked for the special, Kate asked me if I was the person from Facebook!  She had already made the salad for me.  You can’t beat that kind of service!