Coffee to Go
By Dirk HR Spennemann
16 Dec 2008
When in Anchorage (Alaska, USA) you will never be far away from a brew of fresh coffee...just about every street corner has a shack that sells you a cup of mocha, cappuccino, americano, espresso, or latte . Wherever you turn your gaze, there's a small, 8 x 15 foot trailer, weather board unit or converted shipping container offering you a fresh brew. You'd be forgiven thinking that Anchorage is the coffee drinkers' capital of the world...
Choosing the right name is critical, but there are only so many variations one can think of ranging from cheesy puns on the local urban wildlife ("Morning Moose Calf-e") to the more classy ("Terra Bella"), all the way to the crudely cute ("Bad Ass Coffee Co."). Particularly popular are alliterations relating to coffee such as "Common Grounds," "Espresso Expressions" "Mocha Motion", and "Java Junction".
Secondly, it is imperative to paint and ornament your shack, ranging from classy to the outright gaudy. They're all shades of yellow, green, blue, pink, and red. Plenty of neon lighting dangling from the eaves and nailed to the walls illuminates the shacks at night and dusk, overshadowing more substantive decorative elements. Given that much of a winter's day in Anchorage is spent in various levels of darkness, such lighting is essential.
All told, it is not surprising, then, that these shacks are a photographers' paradise. And the cold air makes for clear images, the only blur brought about by you shivering in the cracking cold.
While the first two strategies are designed to attract a customer, the third is designed to keep that customer coming back. The baristas, who are almost exclusively young women, tend to be somewhat skimpily clad, frequently showing rather exuberant amounts of cleavage. At the time the images for this story were taken (in February 08), the temperatures were between -5º Celsius (28ºF) and -25ºC (-13ºF). Even by the widest and wildest stretch of imagination these are not temperatures to be wearing a thin, body-hugging and low-cut T shirt. One cannot but conclude that Anchorage's medical practitioners have a silent investment share in these outfits, thereby making sure that they have a steady stream of barista clients with chest infections...
While the attire of most baristas seems to appeal to Alaska's men, one has to assume that Anchorage's women clientele either does not care or is simply far too caffeine dependent to vote with their feet--- actually, to vote with their cars, one should say, as all of these shacks are drive by and no one, save for a sanity-challenged photographer, leaves their car...
These shacks are truly magic apparitions at dusk and dawn, when there is just that little bit of light to tint the sky a deep dark blue, while the snow-covered ground still reflects the lighting of the shacks.
And the saving grace for photographing these shacks in the middle of winter? There is always a cup coffee close at hand to warm you up again...
6 responses
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Zerina Phillip gave props (16 Dec 2008):
got my yeah. like the photos.
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Jessie gave props (16 Dec 2008):
I was in Alaska a few years back and was amazed by all the coffee shakes. Great story and imagery!
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Dirk HR Spennemann gave props (16 Dec 2008):
Thanks for stopping by and commenting!
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Michael Adams gave props (16 Dec 2008):
Awesome article.To me this is everywhere. They just seem to keep on popping up all over the place.
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Greg Adams gave props (16 Dec 2008):
Fun story! I love these places!!
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Dirk HR Spennemann said (16 Dec 2008):
Thanks Greg. much appreciated!
Michael, We don't have them over here in Australia, but then out society is less car-orinted that the US. But we have coffee shops sprouting up everywhere....
