Newspaper Takes The Pulse Of San Diego Coffee Culture
Portland and Seattle may take coffee very seriously, but San Diego can boast a newspaper devoted entirely to coffeeshops and all the news that's fit to print about them. John Rippo is the publisher of The Espresso, and he's convinced that coffeeshops are the place to catch juicy moments of the human experience, as they happen.
Inspired by European periodicals written for the cafe intelligentsia, Rippo curates local news in his monthly paper to inspire his fellow San Diego residents to social or political action.
But one of the most popular sections of the newspaper is somewhat lighter fare: Heard in the Houses, a coffeeshop gossip column. For 16 years, Rippo has been writing these vignettes about fleeting moments inside of San Diego's many coffeehouses. Most are humorous; some are poignant, he says.
To collect the stories, he visits the city's hundreds of coffeeshops, observing people and eavesdropping on them.
"There are actually a few places that have wonderful acoustics, so if you sit in one corner, you can hear everything that's going on in the opposite corner," says Rippo.
Here's one vignette from the column that Rippo chose to share with us:
Early morning at New Break. A man settles into one of the seats looking out at the beach, sips his coffee, whips out an electric shaver, and starts shaving. A woman with a compact holds the mirror for him as locals watch with equal amounts of mystery and amusement.