November 97 — My favorite cafe in the Washington, DC area is the Java Shack. Campy, quiet, secondary-road, patio with many tables. Smoker-friendly, outside.
A beautiful sexy staff of passionate and brilliant intellectuals, starring super Dale, Duane a la carte, show-tune Jonathan, Speed racer Jenny, Jacques de la France, the mapever-delightful Samantha, Jeremy, & Tom. Coffee is creamy fabu Lavazza out of a Lavazza demitasse. #1 Small Business award by Arlington County.
Lots of new magazines and papers to read. Sunshine by day, table service at night. Show tunes and Barbra tinny from the outdoor speakers.
Everybody knows the words. Jonathan can name a Barbra song in one bar; everybody has a crush on Samantha. Light fare, chips, fabulous low fat (doesn’t taste it — I am pigging out on a bribe, a low fat cappuccino-choc and it’s bloody delicious and my lap is covered with crumbs) yogurt muffins, chai, tea, sandwiches and soups du jour. Lemonade. Caffeinated Water! It doesn’t get better than this.
Gay friendly. Dale spends lots of time and money supporting local and regional activities and even sponsors a bicycle team, Team Coppi. On Saturday, October 25th, the first-annual Java-Fest educates the community on “all aspects of coffee and espresso.” We Americans need that kind of education. Lavazza, Seattle’s Best, and Torrefazione are the coffee of choice for espresso drinks, coffee-of-the-day, and drip, respectively. “Team Java Shack,” 24 employees and patrons, completed the 10k Washington AIDS Walk, raising $2000 for The Whitman Walker Clinic in the fight agains AIDS.
The Shack publishes an internal organ called “The Java Shack Express” newsletter which gives advice on the happenings at the Shack as well as useful tips on how to store coffee. The baristas know your order and will add an item to the menu if you request it even a couple times. Seasonal gift baskets of demitasse, coffee, candy, etc, are often offered for sale at excellent prices.
There’s a Graham Webb cosmotology school up the street, so there are flamboyant and colorful tout en noir stylists sipping their capps while they hide behind dark Grace Kelly shades and gossip. I cannot quite place the clientele. Stylists, Arlington liberal yupps, area students, after-cinema dates. Not an arty crowd, but Arlington isn’t very arty. There is an excellent community bulletin board. The Java Shack really is invested in this community.
Indoors, the are comfy chairs and a coffee table. Chill out here all day and it’s no worries. People spread out here by day to study and talk and really nurse their drinks. An electronic canvas awning was put up and it is only used to protect against sun. Water ruins it. The newsletter states that there are plans to make the patio usefull well into the winter months. An enclosure or space heaters are in the works, so patrons will not be required to move indoors.
Hours are 7 AM to 10 PM Monday through Friday; 8 AM midnight Saturdays and Sundays. Festive wonderful place. Not my local because I live in the Hill in DC and this place is in Arlington, near the Courthouse Metro, Orange Line. Four stars. Three snaps. Sadly, no readings or live music, but there is a music school upstairs so you get to hear beginners hack away with their new axe or squeal on their blues harp.
Java Shack
2507 North Franklin Road
Arlington, VA 22201
(703) 527-9556
Dale J. Roberts, Proprietor
– Chris Abraham
Comments (3)
Random fact : the Java Shack is in the building that used to house the U.S. Nazi Party headquarters. Some of us old timers recall the swastikas that used to hang outside the building. If memory serves, the Nazis left that building sometime in the early eighties.
Wow, that is interesting. Then it became a record store. What was the name of the record store? Anyone remember? I took blues harp lessons as the music school upstairs. How’s that for a fact?
The record store upstairs, was, I believe, Go Records. They moved to another building in Arlington after a few years….