grannyt {L_WROTE}:
it's called DIY ! get yourself a nice (filter) coffee maker (easy to keep clean too) ! Fortress sell for $350'ish ... 100% better than most of the coffee served up in the village. the filters cost next to nothing and you brew your favourite "blend". Nespresso is also an option ... now ParknShop/ollivers sell their machine compatible pods a lot cheaper.
Grannyt, you're completely right, but who goes for a restaurant coffee just for the caffeine? Paying that premium is only acceptable if you're there for a good reason, meeting friends and business contacts, people watching, a meal, reading the news,...
Even an expensive coffee is not too much to pay for sitting on or off Main Street for 1 or 2 or 3 hours, meeting old and new friends...
Almost all my coffee at home is made even cheaper, cheap but great beans from the Lamma Gourmet, ground at home and French-pressed in a simple glass, about $2xx, lasting for many years already. Tastier than almost all local restaurant as I can control all aspects of the coffee-making to my taste.
Nespresso is almost 10 times more expensive per cup than buying even an expensive bag of beans or ground coffee, not even mentioning their amazingly expensive, but so simple machines. According to a recent in-depth story, these capsules now bring in more billions than the entire rest of the coffee industry combined!
Visiting the new Nespresso shop in ifc you see why. These guys are marketing geniuses, making their low-cost, limited products look premium and charge accordingly. Kind of the Apple of coffee merchants...
I looked at Nespresso pricing for a friend (who bought their cheapest machine at close to $2,000!) and for a huge coffee drinker like me their pricing and limitations (so few choices of capsules and machines!) are totally unacceptable. Compatible capsules, even at half price, still make for very expensive home brewing. But convenience trumps everything else for so many people.
So who serves the cheapest (or most expensive) coffee in North Lamma? Many contenders...