Samuel C.
Yelp
Entertainment value - Five Stars
Coffee - Two Stars
Long Term Place to Work - Two Stars
Keep Austin Weird - Six Stars
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Spokesman Coffee is for all intents and purposes an appendage of the Crux Climbing Center next door.
This is one of those artificial rock wall centers
Where people learn how to climb mountains
Being able to fall on to a mat rather than off of a cliff.
The second floor has huge wrap around windows where you can see the climbers in action.
Watching the climbers is like watching blooper out-takes from American Ninja.
People are just learning how to climb the rock walls.
Climbing rock walls is hard.
There are a lot of shenanigans trying to get up to the next nub.
There are a lot of shenanigans trying to stay on the old nub.
People go down a lot.
They go down a lot in harmless but entertaining ways.
For artistic contrast, there are also the buff ballet dancers of the indoor climbing world.
They are elegant, athletic, and can do all sorts of suave sophisticated moves.
They look even more elegant and athletic because Zeppo and Mimi,
Both Rank 1 Amateurs,
Are doing Three Stooges stuff trying to get up to the third nub.
* * *
If you are not here to watch the Brave Buffoons Falling Off the Wall Show,
then the stock of Spokesman goes way down.
The coffee is terrible.
I had an almost tasteless espresso. The taste that was there was less than wonderful.
My wife did not finish her cafe au lait.
She didn't like the coffee itself.
She didn't like the sweetened alt-milk that had been put in it.
Breakfast tacos were acceptable, but not worth leaving the house for.
As a work place, the tables are very very small.
You will work hard to fit your coffee, your food and your laptop all on the same postage stamp.
Worse - most seating stations have no backs.
This is by probably by design.
They don't have many seats.
They want to encourage you to move along
So someone else can buy some coffee and pay the rent.
There are also some people who can work on backless stools for hours.
I am not one of them.
My lower back gives out over time.
My back gives out over time because of the unusually weighty thoughts I have while I write.
These require extra furniture support.
If you don't like the previous explanation,
You can go with Samuel C. being old and washed up.
He needs a chair so he doesn't fall over while drooling.
Either way, if I am going to get work done, I am going to need better furniture.
Internet provision is very good though.
Give Spokesman credit for that.
The spray paint job on the walls?
All the more reason to watch the climbers.
If you look at the walls, you could hurt your eyes.
* * *
Overall, there are more negatives than positives at Spokesman.
But watching the climbers IS a riot.
If you are working on your grand masterpiece on "THE DECLINE AND FALL"
You might be able to do that here.
You can write about the climbers falling off the rock face.
You can write about yourself falling off your stool.
You can write about your espresso cup falling off your microtable.
You can write about how standards in coffee making have fallen off.
If you are there to study for your chemistry exam at ACC,
Your grades may end up falling off too.