Showing posts with label venus rising. Show all posts
Showing posts with label venus rising. Show all posts

Monday, February 12, 2007

CC: Venus Rising Espresso House


What's a Coffee Commentary?


Subject: Venus Rising Espresso House
Location visited: Butte, MT
Free WiFi ? : yes
Rating: 4+ [see key]


Every town has its highlights, the things that make the town really unique. But in West Montana, it seems that Butte (pronounced byute) has some odder claims to fame then most. For one, it has a mile-deep polluted hole full of highly acidic water, all as a result of copper strip mining (which still goes on today). The town was also home to one of the last legal red light districts, the Venus Alley, finally closed down in the 1970s with Reno, Nevada's.

Oddly enough, I managed to find a coffeehouse named (seemingly) after the old red light district, called Venus Rising Espresso House. Giving them the benefit of the doubt that they're not a front to bring back the old brothels, I and a couple colleagues checked the place out. The decor was very very bohemian, with a full art gallery in the back and a very random (yet well-placed) layout of furniture and art all throughout the place. The bar was an old saloon bar, complete with the huge mirror behind it.

They brew Montana Coffee Traders, which has been good at some places and poor at others but as always, I decided to give it a crack here in Butte. Stored in air pots, the coffee came off decent.

The espresso played out as a very odd anomaly. The espresso the first time I stopped relayed horribly blah and watery (poor baristaship mainly) but then the next trip, the doubleshot hit the spot, coming off fairly smooth though (still not phenomenol) due to much better baristas the second time.

The tea was Montana Tea and Spice Traders, a series of tea I finally got to taste only to find them mediocre and not very tasty (*tear*). I had higher hopes...

Overall, if you find yourself in Butte staring at a large hole full of copper water, I would take a side-trip to Venus Rising in "old" Butte.