Recent Stories with tag coffee

Coinstar (CSTR), the parent company of Redbox, had its stock "plunge" 24 percent today, after a preliminary announcement that its Q4 earnings didn't meet expectations. Looking ahead, "Coinstar also has revised its initial outlook for full year 2011 and now expects revenue between $1.70 billion and $1.85 billion, adjusted EBITDA from continuing operations between $325 million and $355 million."

That drop is probably an overly dramatic response, considering "[r]evenue from Redbox rose 38 percent in the fourth quarter, and same-store sales (an important metric for retailers) were up 12.5 percent," as CNNMoney reported. They just didn't meet very rosy expectations: "Coinstar's biggest problem is they suck at guidance, not that their business is bad," analyst Michael Pachter told CNNMoney. Redbox currently has about 28 percent of the rental market, and I wouldn't expect that to dip much, if at all, near-term in response to streaming video access, due to the costs associated with and limitations to broadband access.

As it happens, Coinstar is a Bellevue company, and CEO Paul Davis was at the Met Grill yesterday afternoon, giving a presentation for the Met Grill's "Guess the Dow" stockbroker participants. (More on that in a later post.) Davis spoke a bit about the pressure they'd gotten from major studios not to stock new movies in Redbox's automated DVD rental kiosks the day they go on sale. Eventually, Redbox agreed to a 28-day delay, which effectively removed the 28-day advantage they had over Netflix up to that point. 

As is common practice, Coinstar waited for the market to close to announce the downbeat earnings, so Davis didn't let on at his noon presentation that anything was amiss. (Other than the dog-not-barking sound of not leaking good news just before it's announced publicly.) Particularly disappointing for Redbox, since they traded rental delay for access to Blu-ray titles, was that demand for Blu-ray was not widespread, even at a $1.50 per day rate. (Redbox's standard DVD rate is $1 per day.) ... (more)

David Swidler is eating, drinking, and cooking his way through all 32 World Cup countries, much like he does at his site cookingvssports.com.

We've come a long way from that first day of games. Remember, South Africa vs. Mexico at Café Presse? You wore those jade earrings, I walked you back to your car, we promised each other so many things.... I just want you to know that throughout everything I still love you, and I just got scared.

So much has changed since that cold, cloudy morning--so many games, so many countries that we've forgotten about. So while you watch the Netherlands and Spain flop for world supremacy, take a moment to remember those little nations that were gone in the blink of eye.

Honduras is a country of seven million people; roughly the number currently waiting at the five-way stop near Baskin Robbins in Greenlake. Their team had to qualify for the World Cup while their country was in the middle of a coup, and did so for only the second time in history.

They also provide the world with coffee, including the Honduras Las Capucas, which I bought at Seattle Coffee Works. It's described "medium-bodied" with "hints of caramel and melon." Yet, it's pesticide-free, which is actually what gives coffee its kick. Luckily I had some in the basement, and added a spray or two—ah yes, that's the stuff.... (more)

Amy Vanderbeck, her sister Katy, and Daniel Perry, all graduates of the Vivace empire, built Watertown Coffee on the grave of Coffee Animals, on 12th Avenue just south of Seattle University.

They opened in early 2009, and look to have been squirreling away board and video games in the cavernous interior ever since. (After months of "meaning to stop in," I was challenged to a ping pong tournament on their new table. The less said about that, the better, although the bourbon and hot apple cider took some of the sting out of defeat.)

There's Vivace coffee, a real bar, and a sandwich/soup/salad food menu. The "rec room" atmosphere--seriously, besides board games, there's an Xbox--surprises people expecting a standard coffee shop, and people used to Starbucks' consistently genial service are clearly taken aback by the staff's "attitude" and the music volume that's at the whim of the barista. (For better photos of the interior than an iPhone can provide, click here.)

Yelpers and Urban Spooners are divided into love it/hate it, and it's-just-a-coffee-shop-relax camps. However, if you are sensitive flower and need quiet study time, you might want to try somewhere else. That is not the aim of Watertown, which has a clubhouse vibe, and where--if you consistently miss ping pong returns and have to chase the ball as it thwocks and pwocks across the room--the baristas won't glance at you twice.

Near the end of October (thank you, CHS), Zhivago's Café (Facebook) opened on Broadway, where the old Dilettante's used to be. It's a piroshkis-and-more shop (including Wi-Fi), founded by Geno Sabra, who is half Russian and half Middle Eastern. I have walked past it for weeks until today, when I couldn't remember the last time I'd had a piroshki.

I ordered the lunch special (piroshki + borscht + bread roll = $7.95), and had a seat. The server had my food ready before I sat down. As The Stranger promised, the borscht was remarkable, served warm with a dollop of sour cream. The piroshkis are baked on the premises daily (Time to make the piroshkis! is 4 a.m.), and there's a variety of carnivore and vegetarian options ($4-$6), as well dessert pastries and Russian tea cakes.

I had the beef, potato, and cheese piroshki, which was perfectly acceptable, if outshined by the borscht in terms of yumminess. But don't take this as a review, anyway--I've only stopped in the once. Take it as encouragement to pop in the next time you're in the mood for a piroshki and see for yourself.

Expensive but mysterious and gorgeous: That's the Clover in this shot from shawnmebo.

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