Issue Eight: Cafes

Cover Art by Zahra Marwan

Working as a traditional artist with watercolor and ink, Zahra Marwan enjoys creating small narrative illustrations and magical realism. She is fond of her cultural roots in Kuwait as well as the liberal education she has received throughout her life in New Mexico. She works out of her studio at the Harwood Art Center in Albuquerque.

editor’s note

An open morning spent at an old haunt. The perfect pour. The aroma from the mug mixes with the smell of roasted beans wafting through the room, through the open doors, onto the shaded patio where a table beckons in the dappled light. A slight breeze and a good book. The din of surrounding conversation, the brief hum of an espresso machine, the intermittent voice of the barista calling out names of drinks. A good friend passes by chance and takes a seat. The bottom of the cup appears and it’s time for a a plate of toast. And also time for a quiet toast. To spring, and to the mug and what fills it, to the pastry and what tops it, to old and new and soon-to-be friends, to the breeze and the sun, and to the cafés that can bring it all together. This is our raised mug, steaming and filled with stories, slightly tilted toward yours, offered with a gentle clink and a nod, before we get back to work.

Steep Times

An erstwhile coffee drinker delves into tea at The Teahouse on Canyon Road.

Butternut Bliss

Mariko O. Thomas opts for a vegan pie and doesn’t regret it.

Books, Coffee & Other Delights

Briana Olson writes, “And what better place to kill time than in a bookstore? Isn’t it the very act of killing time that brings us into time, that, like boredom, incites our awareness of it, inviting the eyes to study the shifting panes of afternoon light as they fall on the faces of the people in line to buy coffee?”