Coffee Break

Starbucks is unfortunately my one and only vice to battling the early morning blues. What the coffee giant makes up for in convenience, it lacks in originality and boldly lures you with its overpriced legal stimulants. For a mug of joe that is truly buzz worthy, hit up Catalina Coffee (2201 Washington Ave.) where you can distinctly savor high quality caffeine. Another obvious favorite is Montrose joint Agora where hip shaking belly dancers grace the coffeehouse every Wednesday night. For an out of town buzz, Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf is worthy of the media attention courtesy of L.A. pap faves like Ashley Tisdale and Jessica Simpson. And for those of you who refuse to give up your Starbucks fix (say it slowly: addiction), try some off the menu options like a Tuxedo Mocha (half white, half regular mocha) or a Raspberry Cheesecake Mocha (white mocha with a couple of pumps of raspberry). Happy drinking.

Taking the Cake

Sweets are my kryptonite. I eat them often and savor them quickly. My favorite sugar haunts in Houston are fairly predictable, Shepherd’s The Chocolate Bar, The Desert Gallery and Crave Cupcakes. But by far the best sugar rush I get comes from the ambrosial melt-in-your-mouth flavors of Hey Cupcake! in Austin. Run out of an Airstream trailer, the super sweet company combines conventional flavors in a completely non-conventional way. For example, the Michael Jackson. The name says it all, a light and fluffy chocolate cupcake iced with gobs of gooey cream cheese frosting (needless to say, my favorite). Cupcake goers can even get a free “whipper-snapper,” a shot of fresh whipped cream injected delicately into your cake of choice. This place is a MUST GO on every trip to Austin and my mouth is watering…

(Photo courtesy of http://cupcakestakethecake.blogspot.com)