Patti Smith: Café ‘Ino
This playlist was inspired by Patti Smith's memoir, “M Train”. This playlist is made up of tracks that seem to fit the perfect ambience of Café ‘Ino in New York City. Patti Smith is seated at her favorite corner table with a single chair.
How do you take your coffee?
Patti Smith. “Black.” She enjoys her coffee with a slice of brown bread with a side of olive oil.
Me. “Black.” But I didn't always drink black coffee.
I tasted coffee as a child, but I never really cared for it. Too much milk. Too much sugar. No flavor. Just meh…I was really never a big caffeine drinker, but I did drink tons of soda growing up. Dr Pepper was/is my favorite.
I left soda behind when I was sixteen after my best friend, Joe convinced me that water was far superior. Joe used to keep a gallon jug of water in the back of his car at all times. So then begin my obsession with drinking water. Lots of water. Still do to this day.
It wasn't until I was in my early 20s that I began to consume coffee. Growing up in Southern California it all started with that chai tea latte from Starbucks.
First, it was just the chai tea latte, then over time, one extra shot, then two extra shots, then three extra shots. Over the years lattes became too sweet. Too milky. I wanted more natural flavor.
But it's difficult to go from a chai tea latte straight to black coffee. I tried to make the leap, but it was just way too bitter. I had to progress slowly. I started with making my own lattes at home with one of those Nespresso machines. Coffee with milk, no sugar.
Overtime, less and less milk, but I realized it was difficult to drink black coffee with a Nespresso machine. The grind just isn’t fresh enough.
To me that first cup of black coffee is like that first glass of wine. I remember my first glass of wine. It was on the sidewalk at a wine shop in Point Loma, California with my friend, Joe. I was never a big wine drinker because I could never find that right bottle. Joe introduced me to that right bottle and I've been drinking wine ever since.
Coffee was the same feeling. I had that one cup of black coffee at a coffee shop in Taiwan and was like, “oh shit” this is what it's supposed to taste like. I bought one of those Chemex coffee carafes and started grinding my own beans and making my own drip coffee at home, but I felt something was missing.
Being an American, I missed that coffee smell and feeling of brewing coffee from an electric drip coffee maker. Everywhere you go, everyone has a traditional electric coffee maker in the USA. Houses, restaurants, cafés and coffee shops have that sweet smell of coffee. I wanted that smell in my home.
I went out and bought myself a nice Cuisinart drip coffee machine that also doubles as a coffee grinder. That smell of fresh ground coffee beans is hypnotizing.
I’ve been hooked on black coffee now for about seven or eight years and I’ll never go back to that latte ever again.
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