McCafe

Beth and I are back in NC this weekend to attend a job fair for teachers and meet with our realtor. One of the things we noticed last time we were here were these coffee houses called McCafe. Take a look at the picture above. Starbucks? No. Seattle's Best? No. Tully's? No. Peet's? No. Ready? .................. it's MCDONALD'S! Yes, folks, McDonald's has joined the fray and now has their own coffee houses (part of a normal McDonald's) that offer up all the hot, iced and frozen delights of the chains, as well as wrap sandwiches, pastries and smoothies.

Beth and I met here in Raleigh this morning -- she coming from Las Vegas (via Philadelphia) and I from New York. Beth's flight was about an hour and a half late due to weather so I picked up the rental car and headed for the McCafe we saw near the airport last time we were here. Surprisingly, it was quite nice inside. I sat down in a comfy chair with my $1.50 Americano and began reading the Da Vinci Code (reading it a second time in preparation for the movie, which, BTW, opened today). Yep, they even have WiFi, too, although I'm not sure if it was free or not. The atmosphere was such a departure from your normal McDonald's. I enjoyed that I only paid a buck fifty for my joe and still had the comfortable atmosphere to delve into my book and get lost on the street's of Paris with Robert Langdon and Sophie Neveu.

One of the other nice things about McCafe is if you dine-in, beverages are served in nice, over-sized mugs reminding me more of the mom-and-pop java houses than national chains.