coffee geek

one of the great things about cafe ordinaire in shimokitazawa is the selection of funny books and magazines in their bookshelves. you can go there alone and entertain yourself for hours, reading about the history of harmonicas or leafing through the latest issue of casa brutus. but i personally find the waiter the most amusing feature. he's codenamed "coffeegeek" because he takes his job so seriously.

today was no exception. when i ordered an apple pie with my coffee, he warned me that this apple pie was no ordinary apple pie, that there would actually be two layers of apples of different textures: one caramelized and the other barely cooked, separated by a thin layer of almond paste. did i still want it?

but then what came next was rather unusual: he asked if he could give me a present, a piece of paper with drawings of a little girl and boy. "like you and your friend," he said.