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Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Kitamu Coffee

A new coffee shop opened in the Tinapple shopping center in Hilliard recently. There used to be another coffee shop there, but they recently went out of business. I think the lack of traffic had to do with that. The shop is hard to notice from the road because it is in a little shopping center that I regularly just drive past without looking at it.

The new shop is called Kitamu Coffee.The name, according to their Twitter (@kitamucoffee) means tasty, which is an incredibly fitting name. There coffee was very good, which is to be expected since they get their coffee from Stauf's. I was very excited to see they have a pumpkin pie latte.

The shop itself is very warm. The burnt orange, browns and olive(ish) greens keep it very earthy, but make it warm and inviting as well. The walls are decorated with different styles of art. From photographs to an impressionist painting, different local artists are represented. While that is nice, the art doesn't really unify the whole shop. However, they have only been open for a week now; maybe that will become more cohesive with time.

I went to Kitamu twice over the long weekend. On Saturday, when I was working on my Race and Ethnicity midterm I was a little disappointed. This was only at first, and because the customers at the shop were literally 7 years (at least) younger than me. They were running around like maniacs, but then again that is exactly what my friends did in middle school and early high school. Once they left the shop was much quieter and a lot more pleasant.

The staff are fantastic. I was talking with the owner, Mahmood, about my midterm and then when I went back today we talked about fall. I was saying that I love fall, because the pumpkin lattes are available, unlike the rest of the year. He told me that the Kitamu staff is considering keeping that as a year-round flavor. That means I could get a pumpkin latte in the middle of July if I wanted to. Very little makes me happier. :) One of the baristas, Harris, is also quite friendly.

On a whole, I am really excited for this new coffee shop to be opening here in Hilliard. We need a quality independent shop that can compete with Starbucks. I'm hoping the word will spread and this shop can flourish.

Coffee: ☺☺☺☺☺
Staff: ☺☺☺☺☺
Location: ☺☺☺
Decor: ☺☺☺☺
Overall: ☺☺☺☺

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