Five Watts of Magic

It’s Friday night so naturally, I will either go home and read, or bribe two friends to join me for coffee at 7pm. I live a crazy life! Thankfully, I have amazing friends.

Five Watt Coffee is in South Minneapolis on Nicollet Ave between 37th and 38th Street. Street parking mostly and I typically end up parking a block or so away. This is par for when doing anything in the city, and I enjoy the walk and people watching it allows.

Five Watts is everything you want in a city coffee shop. Narrow, cozy, friendly baristas who know regulars by name, eclectic surroundings, and a garage door type wall of windows they open up in the summer. At any given time you will see couples with small kids, students tapping away on their Macs with highlighters between their teeth, and groups of friends laughing and trying each others’ coffees. Given the size, even when packed, it’s still welcoming ☺️

They change their specialty drinks from time to time so the amazing honey drink I had on my last visit wasn’t available (no idea the name, but if ever there and you see a drink that has honey as the main element –DO IT!) So this time I tried the Busy Beaver (maple syrup, blackstrap bitters, cinnamon, molasses, cracked pepper, milk, espresso). It’s as awesome as it sounds and surprisingly not super sweet. Of the three drinks at our table, it was the favorite all around. (Other drinks tried by Amber and Dan (the bribed): Hibernatör – cold press, toasted almonds, honey, milk (this was good once we added a little cinnamon to it afterwards; it needed a little kick for our liking) and the Deville – tart cherry syrup, cherry bark bitters, smoke + salt solution, mole spray, luxardo cherry)

I love the bitters added for the extra oomph and the “shaken not stirred” method they take. I appreciate the flavors all the way through my coffee, rather than in layers ☺️☕️ It’s the little things, people!

I paired the Five Watt Coffee with A Darker Shade of Magic by V. E. Schwab. Not going to lie, I mostly paired them because I liked the title I came up with for this blog 🙂

I didn’t hear about this book until the second in the series became so hugely popular (A Gathering of Shadows). After looking it up on GoodReads, I had to see what the fuss was about. V.E. Schwab is an amazing writer. The story flows perfectly and sucks you into this world of multiple parallel Londons, Antari magic, and characters you continue to think about long after the last page.  The two main characters are Kell, an Antari magician who has accepted how life is until a stone changes everything, and Delilah Barb, a feisty pick-pocketer with a desire to be a pirate so she can see the world. The pairing is bizarre and brilliant. Lila breathes life back into Kell, and Kell helps ground the ever moving Lila.

The adventure they take on to is fast paced and heart pounding. The secondary characters are written as intricately as the main and I was just as in love and invested in them.

I recently finished book two – A Gathering of Shadows – and now I’m impatiently waiting for book three to come out early next year.  Schwab has quickly become one of my Top 5 authors (In case you’re curious, the other four are, Tana French, Peter Clines, Ernst Cline, and Marissa Meyer – if these guys publish a book, I’m all over it the second it hits the shelf).

Five Watt Coffee has been one of my favorite coffee shops for some time now.  Even if I’m checking out a new place, if I’m in the area, I drop by Five Watt.  It’s a slight obsession; it’s fine 🙂

Five Watt Coffee – ✰✰✰✰✰

GoodReads: A Darker Shade of Magic – ✰✰✰✰✰

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