Brown gold
Gallup goes ga-ga over coffee, places to drink it

Ben Frederiksen and Ken Biornstad talk over a cup of coffee at The Coffee House on Coal Avenue April 14. Gallup has a number of options for those looking for variety in area coffee offerings. — © 2009 Gallup Independent / Brian Leddy

Copyright © 2009
Gallup Independent
By Gaye Brown de Alvarez
Staff writer

GALLUP — Coffee.It’s one of life’s great pleasures, like chocolate, apples and puppy dogs. Coffee makes life bearable. And with the caffeine coffee provides, drinkers can get a kick in the morning that makes it easier to work and get things done.

So where’s the coffee in Gallup?

Nate Browning of Gallup said that Rick’s Cyber Cafe was “one of my favorites.” He likes being on the Internet and he said the people at Rick’s were “very nice.” He wasn’t drinking coffee on that day, but said “Most of the time I order coffee.”

Don Hyde, a new Gallup resident who moved here from southern California, was having coffee at Camille’s. Hyde said he likes dark roast mostly but has recently developed a taste for Camille’s piñon roast. “I’ve been drinking coffee for 40 years. I drink it probably because of the caffeine.”

Mike Jesus and Linda Armijo of Sawmill, Ariz., were also at Camille’s.

“We come here about three times a week,” Jesus said. “We like the location. We drive from Sawmill to Window Rock, then take the bus from Window Rock to Gallup. We have coffee in here and do our homework, then take the Gallup Express to UNM. The bus stop is right by here.”

“The bus from Window Rock is $1 for a round trip,” Armijo said. “It’s always packed. “They both said they enjoyed Camille’s house blend coffee.

Milan Sklenar, a regular at The Coffee House, said he goes there every morning “for the company and local news. This is a good wake up.”

Gallup resident Billy Schoor said he’s not at The Coffee House every morning, but he comes “three or four times a week. The coffee is certainly better than Starbucks,” he said.

Bill Siebersma has been at The Coffee House every morning for the past 10 years. “It has the best coffee in town and this is where the friends are. I get some respect here,” he joked.

“Everything’s happening here.”

Siebersma said he found a place online to buy excellent Guatemala coffee beans with instructions on how to roast them with a popcorn air popper. “I’m planning on trying it,” he said. “Fresh roasted coffee? Hmmmm.”

He said the best coffee he ever had was in White Horse, Yukon Territory.

Juliana Dooley of Gallup was eating lunch on Monday and was raving about the green chile at Angela’s. “She makes it from an old family recipe, and it is roasted and peeled fresh every day,” Dooley said. She wasn’t drinking coffee with her lunch but said she often drinks coffee at Angela’s.

Coffee is an important export commodity. In 2004, coffee was the top agricultural export for Brazil, Vietnam, Colombia, Indonesia, Ethiopia, Mexico, India, Peru, Guatemala, and Honduras.

Coffee use can be traced at least to as early as the ninth century, when it appeared in the highlands of Ethiopia.

According to legend, an Arab goatherder named Khalid noticed that his goats became more lively after eating the berries of the coffee plant.

For many years coffee was offered in almost every restaurant in Gallup as a hot beverage, served in a cup with sugar and cream available for flavoring. But recently, coffee shops with flavored or seasonal coffees have sprung up in Gallup, offering espresso, cappuccino, lattes, macchiatos and a variety of mixes that make coffee fun, surprising and a refreshing addition to a sandwich or breakfast foods.

The new coffee shops in Gallup are also good places to meet people with similar interests — drinking coffee.