Since I started this blog, nearly a year ago, I’ve had a pretty significant personal transformation, away from reliance on the big corporate chain coffee places — Starbucks, Caribou, and to a lesser extent, local chains like Dunn Bros. — and towards supporting local, independent businesses.
But that’s not to say that I’ve stopped going to Starbucks or Caribou. When you drink as much coffee as I do, you take what you can get. And in many ways, downtown Minneapolis is as bad as the worst suburban commercial strip: the second-floor skyways linking most of the high-rise office buildings in the couple of square miles at the heart of our city are, at least as far as coffee is concerned, a chain store wasteland. There is, no exaggeration, a Starbucks or Caribou in almost every building, sometimes more than one. Often right next to each other. But most are not a terribly welcoming environment for someone hoping to hang out and get some work done. You’ve got an office for that, after all. Or so the assumption goes. No public restrooms either. (I’ll avoid getting into the class/race divide between the climate-controlled skyways and outdoor street level, but it’s been discussed — Google it.)
I spent the better part of a decade working in one of those skyway-connected office high-rises, so I’m intimately familiar with the labyrinthine passageways, and I’ve purchased a latte or two from most of those Starbuckses or Caribous over the years. But I’ve never found one I’d like to spend more time at than it takes to get my scalding-hot caffeinated beverage. The closest I’ve come was the Caribou in Gaviidae Common by the skyway to City Center. There’s a decent number of tables outside that Caribou, some even within reach of that all-important electrical outlet. Plus, Gaviidae is one of only a very small number of places downtown (Macy’s and Target being the others) I can think of where you can use a public restroom without feeling obliged to purchase something.
But… that Gaviidae Caribou is always crowded, and getting a seat within cord’s length of the outlets is a crap shoot. There’s another Caribou, however, that for some reason I had never set foot in before today. It’s at Fifty South Sixth, what was to have been known as the Piper Jaffray Building when it was being built, and now best known to skyway denizens as the building with the Chipotle in it. But it also has a Caribou, one with an especially lodge-like, cozy interior, just before the skyway crossing to Gaviidae. (Yes! Gaviidae, sweet giver of public restroom access!)
Today I had a few hours to kill between lunch and a 3 PM meeting in the Warehouse District, and I faced a critical choice. I found myself, five minutes before noon, in Block E. A 12:00 screening of Crazy Heart was about to begin at the Kerasotes. I could go to it. After all, the freedom to capriciously attend a daytime screening when the rest of the city is working was one of the reasons I went freelance in the first place! But, you know, I do have work to do, and in the end my boringly responsible side won out, and I headed for the Fifty South Sixth Caribou instead.
As far as the coffee goes… well, come on, it’s Caribou. At the end of the day, it is what it is. (And generally worthy of being described in terms of not one but two of my absolutely least-favorite clichés.) It’s fine. Not as good as Starbucks. Better than the swill my grandmother used to brew all day long by just adding a fresh tablespoon of Folgers to the grounds that were already in the filter. But the thing that sold me on this particular Caribou as the place to hang out and work while sipping espresso drinks in the downtown Minneapolis area is… the outlets! I was concerned that there might not be any available outlets, considering that the wall all of the tables are against is, you know, made of glass. But much to my delight I discovered power bars running the full length of the floor edge of that glass wall. Yes! An outlet every six inches, for 30 feet! That’s 60 outlets! (Give or take — I didn’t measure or count.)
So… if you find yourself downtown with a few hours to spare, and you’re wracked with Midwestern guilt over the prospect of a spontaneous matinee, head on over to Fifty South Sixth and bask in the glory of this particular Caribou out of the seven (yes, I did count this time) options you have within a one-mile radius.
Bar drinks include the usual assortment of coffees and teas, expertly prepared (on par with 
