Awkward Coffee Experience

I'm not a coffee snob. Quite the opposite. At work, there's coffee to buy (Seattle's Best but not really the best, in my opinion - too bitter) and there's coffee for free. I like good coffee, but I don't want to pay for it every day. I'd rather buy shoes than coffee. The free coffee is some no-name brand, and every day there's regular, decaf, and two flavored ones. The flavored ones are always gross, like mint chocolate or acid-stomach Irish Creme. In the summer, there's free iced coffee, but they stop making it around September. So, what I do is, fill a big cup with ice, pour some plain free coffee in the cup, add more ice, and top it off with skim. What I get is a big cup of watery iced coffee. Not delicious, but it gets me through the morning, I don't get really jittery from excess caffeine, and I avoid the coffee-withdrawal headache I'd get if I skipped it.

On the days I'm really late to work, I'll often stop at the Bean Counter on Highland Street. My theory is, if you're late, you're late. What's 5 more minutes? I either get an iced coffee, with milk (they don't have skim, so I have real milk), or a hot coffee, something with some flavor. The iced coffee at the Bean is good enough to drink black, and I always like the hot coffees as well. Recently, I started getting lattes, and you really can't go wrong with a latte. They're better at Starbucks than at Dunkin Donuts, and are also good at Bean and the new place in Holden, Sweets and Java.

To get to the point, usually I'm in the Bean Counter in the morning, and I'm in and out pretty quickly. It's always pretty busy, with people in line and sitting at tables. The other night, I met a friend for a coffee around 6 pm. It was Thursday (I know this because I had to get home for a new episode of The Office), and the first room (the one where you enter) was pretty empty. Just one person at the front table. We decided to sit in the second room, which I guess you could call the back, even though it's just as close to the street at the first room. Anyway, there was just one other party at first, and they were pretty quiet. Then a few more tables became filled up, with people either reading, on a laptop, or writing a paper or something. It was still really quiet, even with all these people. Except, of course, for me and my friend. We were catching up, and were talking at a normal volume, not loud or anything, but after a while, we felt like we should start - not quite whispering - but - talking more softly. There wasn't any music playing where we were. I think there was a radio on behind the counter but it seemed to be for the people working there, not for the customers. The lights were blazing bright, the walls were painted a light beige, and the tables were white formica-topped. There were paintings on the walls, but they were really small, and got lost on the sand-colored wall.

Basically, the atmosphere sucked. The coffee was good, but I wouldn't go there again for a sit-down coffee. This isn't the first time I've felt this vibe, and if it hasn't changed in two years, it's probably not going to. My suggestion: warm up the wall color, add some non-fluorescent lighting, some tablecloths or something, and definitely a little background music.