EDitorial ± 16-Apr-2010

Ipswich Lunches: Starbucks

One of the joys of the Dylanesque never-ending Light Lunches tour is the week-by-week unpredictablity. In an unfamiliar town centre and in need of a cuppa and a piece of cake, Josephine Punter might well play safe, understandably, and stick to a t&t name -- your Costa, your Nero, your M&S. Whereas we feel it's our duty to seek out new lives and new civilisations, hence our unexpectedly boffo trips to the likes of the Barn Cafe, Sangha, and Kitty's. No chance of that today: come in, Starbucks, the missing link between Moby Dick and Battlestar Galactica.

We already know that Jack's has been going strong for a good 50 years. This particular SB branch sits within the 500 year old Great White Horse Hotel, home at one time to George II and Nelson (Lord, not Muntz). GWH2 also pops up in Pickwick Papers. Course, old Dickens was no stranger to a coffee-house, and I like to think he'd approve of the current caffeine contagion.

Ordered within the L-shaped innards -- minimal queues, plus good pre-packed wrap / sandwich / salad / croissant choice -- then opted to sit outside on the old main drag of Tavern Street, all the better to watch the beautiful people float by. Sipping cranberry & raspberry This Water and nibbling a steak & cheese panini (brought out to me) makes for an agreeable Friday lunchtime. Free Dickensian street theatre in the form of a policeman and a town ranger chasing down a ne'er-do-well. He went that-a-way, officer.

Can't tempt friend M. with any baked goodies but sure doesn't stop me re-entering The Franchise. A product recall for a potentially lethal own-branded coffee grinder has all the hallmarks of Phase 2. Gotta love a flat white -- they're velvetty smooth, ya know -- even more so with a stem ginger muffin. Nearly had the lemon and poppyseed. Ipswich town centre chain store scores on the doors read Starbucks 2, Nero 1, Costa 3.

If it was a car -- Dodge Ram.
If they were passing by -- Stephen Colbert.