{"id":1117,"date":"2014-02-23T05:00:26","date_gmt":"2014-02-23T13:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/?p=1117"},"modified":"2014-02-18T20:44:18","modified_gmt":"2014-02-19T04:44:18","slug":"a-coffee-shop-or-teahouse-of-ones-own","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/writing\/a-coffee-shop-or-teahouse-of-ones-own\/","title":{"rendered":"A Coffee Shop (or Teahouse) of One’s Own"},"content":{"rendered":"

 <\/p>\n

Virginia Woolf\u2019s \u201croom of one\u2019s own.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

Virginia Woolf had a point: It helps for a woman who wants to write fiction to have money and a room of her own. But in 2014, with so many coffee shops offering free Wi-Fi, a room of one\u2019s own may not be entirely necessary.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"my<\/a>

my desk<\/p><\/div>\n

I do have a room of my own\u2014several rooms in fact. So why do I and my fellow coffee-shop writers abandon a perfectly serviceable home office to work in a coffee shop? For some of us, I suppose, the house is too noisy or a host of duties cries out for attention. In my case, my house is too quiet. I enjoy getting out a couple times each week. <\/span><\/p>\n

My favorite away-from-home writing places.<\/span><\/b><\/h1>\n

Starbucks<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

I live just a few miles outside of Seattle, so you won\u2019t be surprised to learn that my town is well supplied with coffee shops. There\u2019s a Starbucks attached to the supermarket I frequent, another across the street from it, and two more I can think of, one in the exact center of town. I write there occasionally, across from the fountain. Sipping my tall decaf Americano with its splash of cold soy, I soak up the low-key ambiance of downtown Edmonds, and then I settle down to write.<\/span><\/p>\n

Caf\u00e9 Louvre<\/a><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

\"017_17\"<\/a>This roomy caf\u00e9 and coffee shop has an artistic atmosphere\u2014walls covered with original art, a cheery gas fireplace, and floor-to-ceiling windows looking out on Fifth Avenue. When I\u2019m writing, the conversations going on around me are seldom distracting. Maybe they keep a part of my brain busy so it won\u2019t run off in another direction. Or maybe it\u2019s just comforting to have other people around.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>Corner Coffee Bar and Caf\u00e9<\/a><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

\"with<\/a>

with Paddy Eger and Emily Hill<\/p><\/div>\n

Twice a month my writing group meets here. We arrive at 10:30 a.m. and stay until 2 or 3:00 in the afternoon, drinking coffee, eating lunch, sharing our news and gossip, and critiquing each other\u2019s work. We\u2019ve developed a real fondness for the owners and staff. I recommend the \u201cCorner House salad.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Baicha Tearoom<\/a><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

\"024_24\"<\/a>I enjoy a good cup of coffee, but my favorite away-from-home writing spot these days is the Baicha Tearoom. I order a pot of tea and maybe a couple of cookies and for the next two or three hours settle down to write. A tea candle under the pot keeps the tea warm, and when the tea runs low, the super friendly owners add more hot water.<\/span><\/p>\n

I usually order green tea or oolong, choosing from among the sixteen different varieties they offer. One of my favorites is Genmaicha with Matcha. Today I\u2019m drinking a delicious white tea: Yin Zhen Bai Hao, also known as Silver Needle.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"022_22\"<\/a>They also have black tea from China, India and Sri Lanka, classic and wellness blends, blooming tea and flavored and scented teas, lattes and smoothies\u201496 choices in all.<\/span><\/p>\n

Since the Tang Dynasty (618-907)<\/span><\/a> tea drinking has been an everyday occurrence and at the same time, an art form for all social classes in China. For centuries, people have met in tea shops to visit and to taste different varieties of tea. Tea tasting, or yum cha <\/i>as they say in Cantonese, used to be nothing more than a tea break since eating and drinking tea at the same time, they believed, would make you fat. Later it was decided that tea would aid digestion, so why not add some snacks? And the dim sum<\/a><\/i> cuisine was born.<\/span><\/p>\n

Dim sum<\/span><\/i>, by the way, means \u201ctouch heart.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"my<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Do writers need “a room of one’s own”? This writer has several rooms at home, but she also enjoys writing in coffee shops and tea houses. Some of her favorite places to write are in Edmonds, WA.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4],"tags":[283,281,282,288,284,285,280,287,278,279,286],"class_list":["post-1117","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-writing","tag-baicha-tearoom","tag-cafe-louvre","tag-corner-coffee-bar-and-cafe","tag-dim-sum","tag-green-tea","tag-oolong-tea","tag-starbucks-in-edmonds","tag-tea-tasting-or-yum-cha","tag-virginia-woolfs-a-room-of-ones-own","tag-writing-in-coffee-shops","tag-yin-zhen-bai-hao"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3Kn1e-i1","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5264,"url":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/writing\/wild-duck-lake-and-the-writers\/","url_meta":{"origin":1117,"position":0},"title":"Wild Duck Lake and the Writers","author":"Nicki Chen","date":"June 26, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 Vacationing with writers comes with its own peculiar kind of fun. 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