coffee

The Globe maps every last outlet of each chain and tries to figure out what it means (Dunk's dominates in Massachusetts - surprised?) - all on a page with some interesting scrolling.

Limeduck reports the Cuppacoffee being built on what used to be a Merrimac Street parking lot is close to opening.

Limeduck continues his one-man campaign to ensure no coffeehouse Scrabble set goes without letters for long.

Yesterday was Drive Aimlessly through Quincy Day here at Chez Universal Hub. We couldn't help but stop to admire the donut shop with the best name ever in the history of donuts, on Hancock Street, and the 15-foot-tall giraffe made entirely of car bumpers outside this mall at Burgin Parkway and Granite Street.

The Daily Free Press reports two guys waltzed into the Panera Bread on Comm. Ave. by St. Paul Street on Tuesday and "refilled their non-Panera Bread mugs with coffee and refused to pay."

If you're one of those people who thinks Starbucks would be much improved if all the hipsters disappeared, you'll love this karmic post.

Around 8:45 a.m, Susan Anderson tweeted:

The Orange Line is seriously standing by "due to a coffee spill that needs to be cleaned up." ... At least it made for a nice-smelling train first thing in the morning...

The coffee break happened after incoming T General Manager Beverly Scott rode the line from a chat session with commuters at North Station to a chat session with commuters at Back Bay. The T posted a photo of her and soon-to-be boss Richard Davey on the Orange Line. Michael Ratty looked at the photo and asked:

Why isn't Beverly Scott drinking a Dunkin Donuts coffee like Davey? Not a good way to endear yourself to Boston.

Also, while the Orange Line ran perfectly (and strangely emptily) on her trip, commuters on the Red Line and the Needham Line got to experience your basic Monday-morning T delays.

H/t Prairie Rose Clayton for the headline.

John Carroll reports that when Brookline's ban on styrofoam food containers goes into effect, he'll just start buying his medium Dunkin' Donuts coffee elsewhere:

The hardworking staff has no kids so, to be honest, we don’t care as much as Brookline goo-goos might about the environmental effects of styrofoam. Add to that, the Dunkin’ Donuts medium coffee cup stands as one of the design triumphs of our era.

A federal appeals court ruled today Starbucks owes Massachusetts baristas more than $14 million for tips that were shared with supervisors between 2005 and 2011, because state law bars managers from dipping into the tip jar.

Starbucks tried to pour cold water on a class-action suit on behalf of more than 11,000 former and current baristas by arguing that "shift supervisors" weren't really managers because they mostly did the same work as baristas and so were entitled to the perk of sharing in pooled tips collected from customers.

But in a scalding decision, the US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit in Boston told Starbucks that the Massachusetts tip law is about as explicit as can be that managers are not allowed to share in tips and that shift supervisors are, indeed, managers:

The sandwich and baked-goods chain is building a new outlet at 3 Center Plaza, across from City Hall, which is good for certain City Hall denizens who are now forced to walk all the way over to High Street on the Greenway for their coffee, bagels and WiFi.

Unlike the High Street and Back Bay outlets, however, this will be a Panera Cares, where you pay only what you think you can afford:

Panera Cares Cafes do not have prices. Instead, we provide suggested donation amounts to help customers understand what it will take for us to operate these cafes and be self-sufficient. In the end, it is up to the customer to decide what to contribute into our donation bins. Those without any means to contribute have the option of donating an hour of their time to volunteering in our cafes in exchange for a meal. In the end, our non-profit cafes can only survive if our communities support its mission and one another.

The Boston Licensing Board formally considers Panera Care's request for a food-serving license at a hearing next Wednesday in its eighth-floor hearing room in City Hall.

The Globe reports the chain will pilot wireless cellphone charging at 17 Boston outlets. You'll need a special mat to put under your phone to soak in all the wireless electricity, but Starbucks says it may have some to give away or to let customers borrow.

Wireless power technology has advanced a bit since the days when Nikola Tesla built his 187-foot-high Wardenclyffe tower on Long Island:

Harvard Street in Brookline.

Timothy's on VFW Parkway recently shut down and took all its coffee with it. The table area's still open to customers from the neighboring Bruegger's, where a cashier said the Canadian-based Timothy's (which has nothing to do with Tim Horton's) was an experiment that just didn't bring in enough customers. It opened only a year ago.

The Boston Licensing Board today granted a food-serving license to a Starbucks proposed for 11 West Broadway in South Boston, with hours of 5 a.m. to 11 p.m.

In other Southie dining news, the board also approved a license for Al's Pizza and Grill at 402 West Broadway.

The Boston Licensing Board yesterday approved a food-serving license for a Dunkin' Donuts opposite the Roxbury Crossing T stop, over the opposition of the local neighborhood association, the mayor's office and City Councilor Mike Ross, who argued Tremont Street already had enough places to get coffee.

Joel and Janel Silveira, who will own the franchise, already operate another Dunkin' Donuts on the other side of the hill, in Brigham Circle.

A Fort Point resident is seeking liquor and food-serving licenses to open a wine bar in the Channel Center Street building where he lives.

Brian Bresnahan's lawyer, Diane Modica, told the Boston Licensing Board today his proposed Internal Matter, 35 Channel Center Street, would give the area's burgeoning population of residents and workers a place to hang out after work and "have a glass of wine and eat something special." Bresnahan, a photographer, hopes to eventually add unspecified performances to the space, Modica said.

The board votes tomorrow on his requests, although board Chairwoman Nicole Murati Ferrer cautioned the board might not have any beer-and-wine licenses to hand out - which means Bresnahan would either have to reapply for an alcohol license and hope one became free or go out on the open market and buy one.

Bresnahan acknowledged that while he has worked in the food-service industry for several years, he has no experience running a restaurant. However, staked with a loan from his parents and a dream, he began talking to residents of his building several months ago about buying the space for Internal Matter. Modica said he's gotten overwhelming support for the proposal.

Bresnahan has lived in the building for five years.

A group of Mission Hill residents traveled to City Hall this morning to support a Dunkin' Donuts proposed for a long-vacant storefront across from the Roxbury Crossing T stop. But a neighborhood association and city officials oppose the shop because, they say, there are already enough places along Tremont Street to grab a cup of coffee.

The Boston Licensing Board decides tomorrow whether to let Joel and Janel Silveira open a new Dunkin' Donuts at 1447 Tremont St., in a space that has been vacant for ten years. The couple already own a Dunkin' Donuts franchise at the other end of the hill, at 1631 Tremont St. in Brigham Circle.

A Dunkin' Donuts franchisee goes before the Boston Licensing Board next week for permission to open a new Dunk's at 895 Morton St., near the commuter-rail stop - and just down the road from Regal Donuts.

The proposed donuterie would be open 5 a.m. to midnight and have a drive-thru.

The board meeting begins at 10 a.m. on Wednesday in its eighth-floor hearing room in City Hall.

Steve reports Southie's PS Gourmet Coffee is now officially open at the old Loonie's Liquors location.

Ed. note: Cool beans and all, but shouldn't they have called it Crazy Coffee?

Dwelltime on Broadway reports too many people have been using its tables as a cheap coworking space, and that's "run at odds with our aspirations of developing dwelltime as a social hub." So no more WiFi between 11:30 and 3, starting on Friday.

David explains why that won't work - the slacker workers will just set up 4G hotspots and keep on hoggin.' At the same time, he says he doesn't understand why Cambridge won't let the cafe expand just because it doesn't have any off-street parking:

There's a bus stop out front and the place is 4 blocks from the red line, but somehow the city thinks that the business needs to provide parking. And the penalty for not providing parking is to be restricted to perhaps half the seating capacity it could serve. Certainly the last thing I want in my precious Cambridge neighborhood is a cafe full of people. Ugh, the thought of it.

The Chelsea Record can't restrain its enthusiasm for the city's first Starbucks - finally, proof that Chelsea is no longer a gritty backwater where people have no appreciation for "a richer, sometimes exotically mixed cup of coffee" but instead a more refined community on the move:

A Starbucks in Chelsea is a good barometer of things that are happening here.

Better yet, it is a good barometer of things to come.

We welcome Starbucks.

What a wonderful addition to the mall.

Artist Mary Sheehan Winn posts a photo of an oil painting she recently did on commission: A Dunkin' Donuts cup and some jelly-filled Munchkins:

This painting is a commission done from a similar painting, for a pair of sisters. I don't know who's going to end up with it but they are both DD fans. I admit I was hindered some (mentally) by having already done this same painting, but I set up my still life anyway and did it again. Hope I captured the same feeling that drew them to it.

The Boston Licensing Board today approved a license for a Starbucks at 1944 Beacon St., across the street from a Dunkin' Donuts.

The Herald alerts us to a new place moving into Porter Exchange in Porter Square.

Keurig, the Reading-based maker of single-serving coffee machines, is suing a California company that makes knock-off K-cups.

In a lawsuit filed this week in US District Court in Boston, Keurig says the Rogers Family Co.'s OneCups violate two Keurig patents (here and here) for a "brew chamber for a single serve beverage brewer."