Blog

There's a new coffee bar in Uptown. This is news, you ask? Yes, it is. In November, Greg Hoyt opened Dogwood Coffee in Calhoun Square, across from Kitchen Window in the space formerly occupied by Starbucks. The differences between the previous chain tenant and this new local installation are dramatic. The space is light and airy, with reclaimed wood fixtures locally sourced and built. The menu is small, and there are only a few baked goods. Yet with a selection and execution this good, I didn't miss a thing. In fact, I found myself already planning my next trip back.

During the summer after my junior year of college, I worked on a farm near Postville, Iowa. That summer I spent many sweaty, happy hours harvesting pounds of peas, potatoes, spinach, cabbage, and nearly every other vegetable you can think of, but the farmer always said we were less in the business of growing vegetables than of growing soil. This statement might sound strange at first – it’s easy to think of farmers as producing crops and livestock to eat, use, and sell – but farmers are also charged with the equally important role of being stewards of the land. After all, good soil is essential for plant productivity, which forms the basis of our health and economic wellbeing.

If you had told me, even two years ago, that one day I would open up the crisp white butcher paper of a package from Clancey’s Meats and Fish, gasp at the stunning beauty of a couple of beef short ribs and run for my camera, I would have told you you were nuts. If you had told me that I would decide to write my next article about short ribs solely because the picture was so fantastic, I would have told you you were double nuts. If you had told me that while I was going all Richard Avedon on the short ribs, I would simultaneously be cursing myself for not having bought more of them, I would have paused, shrugged and agreed that it sounded like something I might do.