The Hunt for Good Espresso

I'm from the Pacific Northwest. I was a grad student for more years than I care to count. I'm a sleep-deprived mother. In other words, I miss my Starbucks on every corner.

Not to say that there aren't any Starbucks around here. The easiest one to get to is inside Target at Pier Park. But it is certainly not a place to get a coffee house experience, and they don't even participate in the Rewards system. What's the point of having a personalized gold card if I can't even get more points?? There's also a Starbucks inside a hotel down on Front Beach Road...smack dab in the middle of tourist central, no thank you. For a "real" Starbucks, you need to head across Hathaway Bridge into Panama City. There's a nice one where Hwy 77 intersects 23rd Street, right by the mall. If you go north on Hwy 77 and up into Lynn Haven there's a really nice Starbucks on the left, across from Wal-mart. It even has a drive-through.

But I can hardly justify the expense of my massage substitutes mochas, so I really can't justify driving so far to get one. Enter the hunt for a Starbucks stand-in.

Option 1: Dunkin' Donuts off Back Beach Road (98). Drive-thru: check. Coffee-house atmosphere: No. Wi-Fi: No. Taste: 3* (too bitter).

*On a scale of 1-5: 1 represents the crap-tastic mochas from McDonalds and 5 a perfect white chocolate mocha from Starbucks.

Option 2: Amy's Coffee Grind, located on Thomas Drive across from Publix and Winn Dixie. Drive-thru: that's about it. Taste: 4. Unfortunately, price is also comparable to Starbucks (which is sadly more expensive down here than anywhere I've been in the Northwest).

And now for the zero scores. Because they had so much promise...but don't really exist.

Ah, Joey's. You disappointed me so. I drove there last Saturday to get some work done in a comfortable atmosphere, only to have my hopes of coffee-house bliss dashed to pieces. And then I had to drive across Hathaway Bridge. On the way home several hours later, I noticed the WiFi sign on Donut Island -- yes! Er, no. Also dead.

Do PCB residents just not appreciate a good coffee house? Strangely, these kinds of businesses seem to be flourishing just fine:

In conclusion, to get good coffeehouse atmosphere along with some good espresso in PCB...you're going to have to get one of these and find a nice quiet corner of your house.