No Coupons at Starbucks

Just before Easter I sorted through the unaddressed detritus in my mailbox delivered by the awesome posties at Canada Post to find some coupons courtesy of Starbucks.

I thought of using them last week on my trek via the Starbucks at the University of Ottawa but, upon reading the fine print, found they were only valid from April 1st to 15th.  So much for that idea.  Not sure who the dimwit was at Starbucks or Canada Post who thought of delivering the coupons about a week before they are valid instead of closer to the due date. At least this was one occasion where it helped to read the bolder fine print on a coupon and left the coupons in my coat pocket for later use.

Fast forward to today, I found myself wandering through downtown Ottawa doing errands and near a Starbucks (100 Elgin Street, Ottawa) that you would miss unless you fell over it. The address claims this Starbucks is located on "Elgin Street" but actually you enter off of Laurier Avenue.  To make matters worse, it is in the same building by the dominating historic facade of the Lord Elgin Hotel which directs your attention  to their impressively kept facade.   But I digress.

I visited at 11 A.M. and walked up the cash and duly presented my coupon before ordering.  The green aproned Barista took my order and typed it in.

The Order: 1 Mocha.

Next, she handed back my coupon explaining they don't accept them here as they are not a corporate store. I looked at her puzzled.  She explained that this location is not a corporate store and the coupon says "Offer good only at participating Starbucks stores in Canada."   I still looked puzzled and inquired where the closest location was.  She said there is one at Slater & Metcalfe would be more than willing to accept the coupon.

I left this location with nothing purchased.  I had gone in looking to try a Mocha drink which I normally do not order as I'm unsure what to put in it.  At $2.00 per Mocha I was willing to give it a try and get a little guidance from a knowledgeable Barista at a quiet store.  Sadly this wasn't so due Starbucks' incompetence.

Starbucks' incompetence? There has got to be a way for Starbucks franchises like this Starbucks to accept the corporate coupons and receive compensation from corporate for them. I believe McDonald's does this as I've used similar McDonald's coupons in the Toronto area, Ottawa and New York City without any refusals.  Not sure why Starbucks' couldn't facilitate this.  Good thing as well I didn't attempt to use these coupons at the University of Ottawa Starbucks either, I would have probably had the servers there flummoxed.

Overall, Starbucks has disappointed me.  I was there to try a beverage Starbucks had paid to promote through the printing and delivery of the coupons.  Starbucks' own corporately branded store refused the coupon upon some lame excuse of not being a "franchise store".  I left the store feeling puzzled and thought about working my way up Metcalfe Street to the corporate store.  But changed my mind, I decided to duck into the nearby Tim Hortons instead where they welcome you with open arms and no lame excuses. The only  dissapointment from Tim Hortons? I didn't win anything in the Roll Up The Rim contest.

From the Mailbag: Dear Virginia....

From the mailbag:

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From: Virginia Bahi (virginiabahi@ymail.com)

Sent: April-03-13 9:22:22 PM

To:

Subject: Hope you are doing great.

I believe you will like to make good and nice friends from anywhere in the world. My is Virginia, i am a beautiful and honest girl. I want to be your friend after viewing your contact while searching for a reliable friend to mingle with, share some pictures and more. If you care to know more about me. I will tell you more as soon as i receive your reply. Thanks, i wish you all the best...

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Hi Virginia,

Thanks for your kind message. I hope you are doing well wherever in the world you happen to be.
I'm not sure how it came about that I'm a reliable person based on my "contact". Did we meet somewhere on the street and I didn't recognize you? Do you say this to every random person you pass by on the street? I would love to know. Perhaps you could send me a YouTube video of your technique. May I suggest you try filming on the downtown 4 train approaching Grand Central in New York City at about 8:30 on a Monday morning? I have good authority many New Yorkers are quite pleased to make the acquaintance of someone at that hour.

Finally, I notice you left the "TO:" function on the e-mail you sent me blank. Is this because you "BCC'd" it to several other people to make them feel special as well? Please excuse the skepticism but I believe "good and nice friends" should write personal notes directed at each other directly without hiding anything or sending it to other people.

I apologize for the skepticism as well because I also nearly missed your message as it ended up in my spam folder. Hopefully, in the future this will not happen but this also could be a sign your e-mail has been blacklisted on the internet. As a handsome and honest boy I thought you should know this and hopefully have the all powerful Google Machine fix that.

Finally, there is no need to reply with pictures. I will save you time and photo upload hell by not requiring these. If you are interested in making contact again, please feel free to comment on this or any other posting on this blog. No need to e-mail me as somehow your e-mail address has ended up on my "Blocked Sender list" along with several other e-mail addresses I have from high up scammer type African officials wanting to send me millions of dollars. No offence really as I don't know how to remove your e-mail address from this list and don't wish or have the time learn how.

Thank you again for contacting me and I hope this message finds you well.

Sincerely,

Michael

Tim Hortons on Laurier: Service a Prime Minister Would Love

Just grabbed a quick cup of coffee from Tim Hortons (161 Laurier Avenue West, Ottawa).  I realized that this place is pretty unappreciated and underated.  A Tim Horton's that has this stature? Could it be?  Sadly, yes this is so, now to explain.

I have been to this location a couple of times after getting annoyed at the stupidity of the customer line ups of the sister store at Metcalfe & Slater. The Laurier Tim Hortons location is like a breath of fresh air.  The employees here love to see an empty line up awaiting service and cheerfully serve their customers like you may be their best customer of all time.  Fast, friendly service is one thing, but how about the food?

The Order: 1 Medium black coffee.

Today I ordered my usual coffee selection, 1 medium black coffee, which is a good way to tell if a Tim Horton's location is on top of their game. I've had everything from weak coffee to a little sugar added to perfection.

The Laurier location had two employees serve me, one took my payment while the other poured the coffee.  The coffee was perfect, not too strong, not to weak and definitely no sugar added as requested.  On previous visits, I have also had fresh coffee each time made almost better than Tim Horton himself would have called for.

Overall, I've found this Tim Hortons to be a quiet spot to grab a coffee read the paper or be on your merry way.  Good corporate chain food and drink coupled with well trained employees and above average cleanliness help to make it.  Hopefully the Tim Hortons at Slater & Metcalfe can learn from this location, Ottawa Timmies addicts would greatly appreciate it.

Art is in the Bakery in an Industrial Complex in the City Centre?

This afternoon my wife and I decided to go on a bit of an adventure to just to the west side of downtown Ottawa to investigate Art is in Bakery (250 City Centre Avenue, Ottawa) which is an Ottawa landmark amongst foodies especially for those enjoying the bakery cuisine.

Adventure? Yes, Art Is In Bakery (also known as Art Is In Boulangerie)  opened in 2010 in the current new location in an industrial plaza, bordering the O-Train tracks, where they have become well known for their breads and other baked goods. The Ottawa Magazine covered the opening and reviewed it.  As well the bakery does well on Urbanspoon.com rankings (#11 in Ottawa) and the bakery has recently made the news with the announcement it will slow it's wholesale operation to concentrate on the retail side.   Yes, to run a retail operation out of a industrial plaza complete with walk up loading dock. Sounds weird and it is especially if you don't drive.

Getting there via public transit is interesting to say the least.  We took the OC Transpo through downtown to the Bayview Transitway Station. Now the fun part is if you are on the westbound side (north side of the Transitway) of Bayview Station you have to walk down the path to the O-Train tracks and back up to the eastbound Transitway platform then to the traffic light to cross Albert Street.  All of this just to exit the Bayview Station and get into the neighbourhood.  From there it is a short walk eastwards to City Centre Drive which has housing on the eastside and a large industrial complex on the westside that houses the bakery.  The main problem with this industrial complex is that sure it can be quiet on the weekend but the other businesses probably have large trucks coming and going during the week making approaching the Art Is In Bakery a little troublesome.

Once the front door is open though you are  welcomed by a front concrete warehouse floor busily full of tables brimming with people enjoying lunch at with the service counter running down the left.  The counter has a coffee machine, two cash registers as well as a counter and display case showing the days newly baked items brought out from the back.

We perused the display case and counter to investigate what to get.  We decided and then waited patiently for the single customer ahead of us to place our order.

The Order: 2 Hot Cross buns and a shortbread Easter Bunny Cookie.

Hot Cross Bun from Art Is In Bakery

We paid $7.07 for everything and left.  The breakdown was $1.75 each for the Hot Cross Bun and $3.00 for the drizzled chocolate covered shortbread cookie.  We couldn't believe the cookie was so expensive while the Hot Cross Bun seemed quite reasonable.   This brings up an issue my wife pointed out after we had left.  No prices were posted next to the newly baked items on the counter for customers to know how much an item is before buying it.  The only thing I asked the price of was the Hot Cross Buns and the employee had to type it into the cash register to find out it was $1.75 each.  The only prices posted, on large chalkboards hanging above,  are for the breads and sandwiches.  Nowhere to be found was the daily baked items pricing.  

The Hot Cross buns were perfect sweet tasting yet moist. The only downfall was I forgot to pick up a cup of tea or coffee to go with it.  Service wise the only quibble was they were not offered to be quickly heated to make them even better.  Warming them would have resolved the issue of the buns being made that morning and sitting until the afternoon for my purchase.  Minor quibble really, but to get the best out of the Hot Cross Buns they need to be warmed.  

The shortbread cookie was exquisite except for the before mentioned price.  The chocolate complimented the traditional dry shortbread very well.  The only problem was we never ordered a liquid either to go with the cookie. 

Overall, Art Is In Bakery is traditional bakery located an interesting location within an industrial location on a street called "City Centre Avenue".  With a name like "City Centre Avenue" it would be figured that the bakery would be downtown Ottawa within a hop from Parliament Hill.  Not so, it is located west of downtown and not even close to "City Centre" as most Ottawans would know it.  The food is top quality based on the reviews, photos I've seen as well as the couple of baked goods we had this afternoon to snack on.  Getting there can be tricky if you don't drive but hopefully will get easier as the lands around the Bayview Station and the O-Train tracks grows and matures.  Thus, Art Is In bakery may become part of a new city centre based around an industrial complex.

Hope the Ottawa U's MBAs Don't Work at this Starbucks

I quite often pass by the giant Starbucks logoed lightbox mounted in the window of the University of Ottawa's Demarais building overlooking OC Transpo's southbound Laurier Transitway station. I wonder if this newish  Starbucks (55 Laurier Avenue East, Ottawa) is any good?  Does it sate the caffeine addicted student clientele looking for relief?  Do the notoriously cash strapped student customers skip Starbucks' reputation of high brow and high priced over whipped caffeinated beverages?  There was only one way to find out.

Today I stopped off at the Desmarais building to find the Starbucks.  I entered Desmarais via the Laurier Street entrance and worked my way around to the Waller Street (Transitway) side to find the Starbucks.  A nice modern airy feeling with plenty of spots for students to pull up their laptops, enjoy some caffeine and work on projects either alone or in pairs. But during busier times I would imagine this Starbucks would quickly run out of seating room as there were approximately only seats for 20-30 people.

The line though was about ten customers long. There were four Starbucks employees working the counter with two cashs open, one employee on coffee bar and one running.  The first little bit the line seemed to move forward somewhat at a decent pace until I was third in line.  Then for some reason one of the employees decided he didn't want to do cash anymore and went over to the condiment and lid section to wipe that down while ten customers waited in line.  Sure another employee was starting by washing their hands, but the line then slowed down again.  The hand washing employee seemed to disappear to the back only to be seen later restocking the front display case. Really? Management has two employees doing cleanup during a break in classes as students (read: this location's main customer base) are filing in looking to buy?  Really?

Eventually I get to the front and place my order.

The Order: 1 Tall Blonde Roast.

The runner came back with my coffee soon after paying.  I ventured over to the condiment and lid section to be a little more perplexed.  The old "which lid would fit my cup" query surfaced.  There were four choices to choose from.  Normally at a fast food location like Starbucks and McDonald's that offers this Price is Right type of game, I fail at. On the first attempt I usually end up choosing the wrong sized lid and wastefully throwing it out instead of putting it back like a board of health bandit. At this Starbucks the bottom two holders of the lids had faint writing telling which one it is.  It looked like someone, once upon a time weeks or maybe even a year ago, wrote in labels in chalk for the lids right on the lid stack holders.  These labels, of course, have faded over time and the top two have totally evaporated.   I made my guess and, success, I was right! I covered my cup and left.

Overall, this Starbucks is in a prime location right on a major street at a university coupled with a major transit station nearby.  Added to this the frustrating length of lines at the Tim Hortons location at the University Centre (85 Universite Private, Ottawa) with only one cash and two or three workers stuck in a corner and this Starbucks location a short walk away looks like organized heaven.  But the Starbucks service needs some fine tuning.  There needs to be overlap of employees coming on and leaving so that the cleanup of the condiment and lid station, restocking baked goods display and general tidyness of the tables is attended to.  Surely it doesn't take a University of Ottawa Telfer School of Business MBA degree to know this theory and put it into practice.

Kettleman's Bagels is the Place to Be in Orleans

Today for a snack while out and a about I visited Kettleman's Bagel Co. (1222 Place D'Orleans Drive, Ottawa).  I had previously visited a Kettleman's Bagel Co on Bank Street near Landsdowne Park and enjoyed it immensely for their fresh baked bagels. So would the location in Orleans fare just as well?  I felt conflicted, sure I compare McDonald's franchise restaurants against each other in terms of service and food preparation, but could I do the same for a bagel franchise between a popular downtownish location and a more suburban locale? Heck why not?  Let's do it.

I arrived at 2 P.M. to bet he only customer in the store.  Was not to worried though as there were four employees working away.  Two were working the batter into the perfect circles getting them ready for the roaring wood fire.  Another was neatening up at the front waiting for my bagel order.  A fourth, I'm not sure what she was up to but was around as later should would assist in preparing the order.  I stood there wishing I could taste each and every single item on the menu just like an overzealous kid at Baskin & Robbins wanting to taste all 31 flavours.  Finally, I did narrow down my bagels to two choices.

The Order: 1 Garlic bagel with plain cream cheese and 1 Cinnamon Raisin Bagel

The Garlic bagel with cream cheese took a little while to acquire as it was sent over to the other employee who cut it in half and started spreading cream cheese.  The Cinnamon Raisin Bagel I asked her to cut in half so my wife could enjoy as well.

The Garlic bagel with cream cheese was a bagel connoisseur delight. The bagel was definitely garlicy and still warmish to the tongue from the fired up adventure it had just made into and out of the oven. The only quibble, I think the dough was circled a little to thinly and could have been a slightly more generous.  The cream cheese though was easily generous. A large amount of creaminess enveloped my tongue to challenge the garlic of the bagel to a delightful dual of supremacy.  My taste buds were the beneficiary of the dual with no victor pronounced.

I ended up with half the Cinnamon Raisin Bagel as well as my wife only wanted half.  The bagel was, understandibly, a little lacklustre compared to it's Garlic cousin due to the lack of cream cheese. The Cinnamon Raisin Bagel by itself was a great entry in the competition of bageldom.  I would easily enter it against  Tim Hortons' finest only to have Kettleman's easily beat it hands down.  Would Kettleman's out dual a bagel from the heart of Montreal?  Not sure yet. How about New York? Darn close to the goodness I've tasted at two of Brooklyn Height's finest during my days strolling the streets in New York City. The only downside is the Kettlemen's Bagel Co in Orleans is held back by it's scenery compared to the awesomeness of New York. But then again, putting a suburban strip plaza location overlooking a vast expanse of parking lot against the Manhattan Skyline really is not fair at all.

Overall, this Kettleman's is exactly the same quality of food and service  you would find at the other Kettlemen's located on Bank Street in south Ottawa. The added value of the Orleans location is it is not as busy during the day as the Bank Street location.  This is because of the Bank Street's location in the touristy Glebe neighbourhood as opposed to the more suburban Orleans location. But imagine the Orleans location is busier on the weekends due to the surbanites looking for a weekend breakfast out or a snack.  Orleansians could do worse, heck there is Place D'Orleans Mall right across the street with some food court food that wouldn't even light a fire to the goodness that Kettlemen's fire baked bagels posses.

While on the Train, Pick up a Sandwich

For lunch on Friday I visited Subway (500 Terminal Avenue, Ottawa) for an old fashioned sub sandwich.  I had previously tried the Subway in the Alta Vista Centre and found it subpar.

On previous visits to this location at the Ottawa Train Yards I have had pretty good sub sandwiches with friendly service.  Friday was no different.

I visited at 12:15 to find the restaurant filled with people and a decent line up.  I thought twice about joining the line as sandwich shop lines are not known for moving that quickly.  I gritted my teeth and stuck to it.  Turned out I was right, I looked at my watch when I joined the line and after paying, 5 minutes total.  Not bad for a busy spot with about 20 sandwiches in front of me.  The place ran like clockwork with 4 employees manning the counter.

The Order: 1 12" Cold Cut Combo on 9 Grain Wheat.

The first employee inquired about what type of bread and cheese I would like before passing me over to the second.  The second employee added the meat and other toppings.  The third employee was tied up in making a salad for a bit.  Thus, he really wasn't used except to wrap the sandwich.  But it was nice to see the second employee ensuring I didn't get stuck in Subway sandwich prep pergotory by noticing the third employee was a little backed up due to the salad prep and helped to top a few sandwiches with vegetables. Finally, the fourth employee took payment and gave the ever usual fast food upselling query: "Would you like to make it a combo?"  I of course said "no" and skipped out the door.

At home, I unwrapped my sandwich and ensured it was made to Subway specifications, as in 12" long sandwich.  I did this as I had previously read that other customers had found Subway was giving them 11" bread instead of the advertised 12" or footlong.  Sure enough, my sandwich was a perfect 12"

Now taste wise, things also stacked up.  The mayonnaise was perfectly apportioned and not spilling out.  There was only 1 topping spilling out, the usual lettuce.  No other casualties that fell out of the sandwich were  noticed.  Freshness wise, all the ingredients tasted perfect.  I only mention this because at some Subway locations the toppings can get a little questionable especially when they taste like they have been sitting for a while.  Noticeably, it is usually the meatballs with the dried on tomato sauce.

Overall, the Subway at Ottawa's Train Yards shopping complex is a great place to grab a sandwich while on the go.  Good knowledgeable service with a decent turnover of fresh toppings ensures good sandwiches leave the place.  This has become my new favourite place to grab a Subway sandwich.