Lunch and coffee

I had lunch twice last week at the Coffee Emporium on Central Parkway last week. I just happened to walk in one day and realized the whole store had shifted to the right, into a new, much larger space that feels sort of lofty-industrial-urban. It was full of all these arty-looking people, like ballet dancers and people wearing cool glasses. Sometimes an atmosphere will just feel different or new, or full of a kind of people you don't feel like you usually see. . .
They take coffee really seriously there. Tony Tausch is roasting his own, even sourcing it himself from all those exotic coffee places like Ethiopia and El Salvador.

He's also sourcing his food from places that are perhaps less exotic but also best-of-class. The soup is from Myra's in Clifton, the pastries from Shadeau and the salads from What's For Dinner? in O'Bryonville. They, in turn, use his coffee. I like his cooperative, don't reinvent the wheel approach. The sandwiches are their own--paninis like a good mozzarella-basil combo and a roast-beef with lots of horseradishy mustard. And they come with a little bag of high-class potato chips from blue potatoes.

Too bad I can't drink coffee after about 11 a.m. (as I realized that night, once again. . . . )
It's at 110 Central Parkway, and is open from 7 a.m.-4 p.m. Monday-Friday; 9 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday; 513-651-5482. The website http://http://www.coffee-emporium.com/# seems like it's still being developed.