RISE

Whoa. Like seriously. Whoa.

Let me begin with a brief rant? Thanks for your permission. This is not the place for the faint of heart. If you lack a certain level of hipsterness, hipsterostiy, hipsterism, this is not the place for you. Walking into Rise, you immediately leave any semblance of an outsider at the door and have to assume the position. Never have I seen so many interesting artifacts, decorated space, antique furniture, and random accessories. The feel of this coffee shop is altogether different. Portlandia comes to mind as I entered Rise. I’m almost positive there was a typewriter used ironically as decoration. Let that sink in. Everything was different. The atmosphere was underground. It was a place that seemed overlooked, almost as if you needed an invitation to be there. Immediately, I became self-conscious of my lack of coffee credentials. I felt like a tourist in a strange world. Had I just entered East Austin? I desperately felt the need to wear some flannel and some half-rimmed glasses and discuss how we should abandon all cell-phones and accept the telegraph as the appropriate method of communication.

Hopefully, my sarcasm doesn’t drive you away. I may have been a tad exaggerative, but my point is that the ambience of Rise was singular. Located in the grove, Rise remains a place that is found to those coffee drinkers that are looking for it. I found myself almost under-qualified to be here, but I quickly came to the conclusion of how this was so descriptive of my experience with coffee. Many times, I feel like an outsider looking in. I see many individuals around me that can tell the differences of different coffee beans, individuals who know the taste disparity between hand-brewed and drip-brewed coffee, tasting the smallest tones in the taste of coffee.

Yet, I was not left hopeless. I was not left to wallow in my lack of experience. Within this community, a warm inviting mystery lies. The more I seem to not know about this world, the more I desire to immerse myself in this community. Now, I am not saying that there exists a distinct coffee world that many seek admission to. What I am saying is that the coffee atmosphere that exists in these independent coffee shops due to the collaboration of many different communities, such as the local artist, the barist[a], the business owner, and the neighborly patron.

So what am I trying to say? Am I ever going to talk about the coffee? Will I talk about how my mocha enlightened me to disparities in Saint Louis? Well, I can. But, that’s not what happened at Rise. [I truly enjoyed my coffee, and will definitely return for more]. What struck me as the experience I was experiencing. I sat in Rise and realized that this establishment exemplified the art of this community. It exemplified the space of this community. It exemplified the value and ideals of this community. I quickly realized that although I went into Rise to evaluate and communicate back my experience, the coffee shop communicated to me. It showed me once again that I have just scratched the surface of this coffee community.