Posts Tagged ‘Coffee’

Are you a coffee drinker? Is it just a morning thing or an all day gotta have it thing? More importantly, where do you buy your coffee?

I was spoiled when I worked in Manhattan. The best coffee around was from the coffee cart outside my building on the 36th and Broadway. He was only there in the mornings, and was replaced with a roasted nuts guy around lunchtime. Sure, occasionally I bought a donut or cruller, but the real appeal was the coffee. I almost always had to wait in line in the morning to get my coffee, but the speed of which it was poured and placed in a brown paper bag was so quick that you didn’t mind if you had a half dozen people in front of you. Starbucks was a place I went in the afternoons to get out of the office if I needed to have a clandestine meeting or to do a phone interview. Dunkin Donuts was for weekends or if I needed to sober up a bit on the train ride home out of Penn Station.

Then I moved to Tennessee. I was astonished to find out that there was only one Dunkin Donuts in Knoxville. I wasn’t expecting to find street coffee, but I thought America Runs on Dunkin Donuts. Apparently, not in the land of the Hot Now Krispy Kreme. It seems like Pilot gas stations fill the need for blue collar workers morning caffeine while Starbucks rules the roosts for the cubicle crowd. Coincidentally, my morning commute takes me on a road that has both the one-and-only Dunkin Donuts along with a Starbucks. Some mornings Dunkin Donuts does it for me, other mornings I feel the need for a triple grand non-fat caramel machiatto. (I don’t like it “skinny” because the sugar-free caramel flavoring has too much of an aftertaste for me. ) I was fine with the 2 on the go options, along with starting to brew more coffee at home in the morning while I actually eat a real breakfast on my couch instead of something quick in the car or at my desk.

A few weeks ago the Dunkin Donuts closer for renovations. The building really needed it. It looked like a building that had been converted to a Dunkin Donutsinstead of actually being built to house one. It wasn’t until this morning, when they reopened, that I discovered the real difference between Dunkin Donuts and everywhere else. Instead of going through the drive through, I decided to park, get out of my car, and check out the inside of the newly refurbished store. It was clean, it was bright, and more importantly, everyone working behind the counter had 1 thing on their mind - speed. My coffee and muffin were in front of me, delivered by 2 different people, before the cashier, a 3rd person, even handed me back my change. While Starbucks closes down its stores for an afternoon to talk about refocusing on the customer, this Dunkin Donuts was actually doing something about it.

They’ve got great coffee that’s cheaper than Starbucks, but they don’t have their own social network yet. They’ve got a bigger selection than Krispy Kreme, with the breakfast sandwiches and bagels. At least the one here is really focused on their customer service. They’ve certainly come along from here. In spite of their choice of celebrity spokerperson, is Dunkin Donuts poised to take over your morning ritual?