A few weeks ago on a whim, I bought a Living Social Deal for a coffee shop up in Scranton called Café Beignet. We usually don’t travel much farther than our kitchen for a hot cup of joe – except on Fridays, when we go to Dunks – but this past weekend, Bert and I braved the wind and the snow (Hurray for October nor’easters!) for a Saturday morning date in our sister city.
Scranton’s always quiet on the weekends – actually, it’s quiet all the time – and the weather didn’t help any. There were approximately three “occupiers” in front of city hall and only one other brave patron of Café Beignet. The café is just north of Cooper’s Seafood (of “The Office” fame) on Washington Avenue downtown. It’s run by the Milk Saving Starving Children Foundation and all profits go to support child nutrition programs overseas. So you can drink your coffee and feel good about it too. Sweet.
The café is decorated New Orleans style, right down to the Mardi Gras bead-wearing donkey out front. (My inner architect especially appreciated the old school tin-style, stamped metal inserts in the dropped ceiling. Because we all know how I feel about dropped ceilings.) We ordered two mochas – the Carlton Family favorite – and six beignets – the Café Beignet specialty. (Go figure. ;) We didn’t know what a beignet was (or how to say it), but the barista explained that it is essentially a square piece of fried dough covered in powdered or cinnamon sugar. Mmm…he had me at fried. (And it was only $4 for six. What a deal!)
Since it was quiet, the barista went to the back to get our beignets started. (Yes! They make them to order!) He brought them out to our table – three covered in powdered sugar, three in cinnamon sugar – and proudly announced that “lunch had arrived.” (It was about 11:15 a.m.) We laughed, but oh man, was he right. They were hot and amaaazing. Totally worth the snowy drive up 81. The mochas were eh – lukewarm and a little acidic – but in perspective, totally inconsequential. It doesn’t matter what the coffee tastes like when you can eat fresh fried dough. I’m definitely adding Café Beignet onto the “NEPA Highlight Tour.”
PS Cooper's is totally better than that place in Tel Aviv. Just as long as you're at the Scranton one. The Pittston branch? Eh, not so hot.
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