In terms of appearances, this is one of the more pleasant places to have a coffee in Donostia.
It is in a real-people neighborhood,
So you don't get beach views or old churches to look at.
Your view is a broad boulevard with a lot of passing pedestrian traffic, a railroad track, and houses mounting up a hill.
But the room makes everything light and airy.
The traditional coffee places in Donostia really are bars.
They are dark. They feel male. There is a TV - with news or sports events. You stand at the counter.
Some coffee places are bakeries. They are more female but still feel old school.
The atmosphere? Old ladyish.
Anyone can have tea at Pasteles Meyvi -
but it has a definite young and female feel to it.
This place has high ceilings - easily fifteen feet.
Great big windows on two sides letting in light from every direction.
Everything is cloud white - the walls, the counter, the china.
The wood is very very light pine.
Donostia is cloudy most of the time - and the color of the sky - which you see on both sides - is exactly the same as the color of everything around you.
Everything is fresh and light.
I could sit in this room forever.
How is the food?
The coffees are coffee.
The teas are particularly good because they are fresh infusions rather than teabags.
The baked goods are of note.
These are not traditional Spanish or Basque baked goods.
These are new contemporary recipes with all sorts of twists.
A common theme to the twists -
Nuts rule.
(No I am not talking about the government in Spain, the US or the European Union.)
Their take on galletas is like that of the decor: light and white.
The filling?
Peanut butter.
Peanut butter makes sensational cookies.
I am a total lover of traditional American peanut butter cookies - which are rich heavy filling concoctions.
This is an elegant galleta - almost like a Pepperidge Farm Milano cookie.
But the thin layer of peanut butter packs a big peanut taste.
A winner.
Another "nut" success is the brownie.
It is technically a chocolate brownie and there is chocolate in the recipe.
But, by design, you will barely taste any chocolate.
There are far more nuts than we put in a chocolate brownie and they are good nuts.
The brownie holds the nuts together and gives just a soupcon of chocolate background flavor.
It was not as decadent as the ooey-gooey fudge brownies Grandma made.
But - keeping with the theme of the place - it was a satisfying delicate brownie.
* * *
Of course if you want to sit in this room for as long as you would want to sit there,
you will need to take your time on your tea infusion and take your time on your brownie.
Do so.
Sometimes to get out of your funk, you need more than caffeine.
You need light and white to make things bright. read more
