Coffee Talk - Baton Rouge Edition

My teen only has about three more weeks at Brother Martin-in-exile in Baton Rouge, at which time my haunting of BR coffee shops will drop off radically.

For the benefit of New Orleanians who are stranded in this wasteland that is the state capitol, there are a few bright spots. There are a number of CC's Coffee Houses in Baton Rouge. No surprise there, since Community Coffee started up here. With the influx of folks from New Orleans in BR, the CC's locations tend to be a bit more crowded, as exiles make use of the chain's free wireless internet service.

If a CC's is too crowded and I want to get on the 'net, the next best option is the ubiquitous chain with the green sign. Starbucks is affiliated with T-Mobile, so many of their shoppes are "hot spots." I'm not a big fan of Starbucks coffee, though. If I have to go there to get online, my drink of choice is a Chai Latte.

Of the various CC's I've been to here in BR, I've found the one on Bluebonnet and Perkins to be crowded the most often. The one on Perkins near Government is nice and has less traffic, and the one out on Siegen Ln. is even more laid-back. The coffee and pastries at all locations is consistent; this franchise has done well in terms of training baristas. There's also a CC's in the Mall of Louisiana, on the first floor, across from La Madeleine.

For the homesick New Orleanian trapped in BR, it's possible to capture a little piece of home at the Cafe' du Monde at the Mall of Louisiana. The coffee's excellent, and the beignets are good, but the atmosphere makes you miss Lakeside Mall more than it makes you miss the French Market.

A place with more ambience and good coffee-and-donuts is Coffee Call, on College Dr., just before it intersects with Perkins Rd. A couple of my friends from Shreveport have been telling me about Coffee Call for years now, about how they make good beignets. Being from New Orleans, I've always nodded politely and ignored their urging to try it. After all, how can anyplace outside of metro New Orleans be any fun? Well, things have changed just a bit around here, so I gave Coffee Call a try.

I don't know why I never made the connection before, but it hit me as soon as I walked in the door: "Coffee Call" is a play on "Morning Call." The interior of the shoppe is a loose copy of Morning Call in Metairie. Just like MC, Coffee Call has counter seating with wooden stools, and a big wooden archway illuminated by bare lightbulbs. The big difference is that the Baton Rouge shoppe is painted and trimmed out in blue rather than the browns and yellows of Morning Call. It's one of those situations where imitation is the sincerest form flattery, because it works. It's not merely a plagiarized copy.

Of course, the proof is in the pudding, or the beignets, in this case. They're pretty good, as is the coffee. Just like CDM in a shopping mall will never rival that order you had with your sweetie under the awning on Decatur Street on the special, memorable night, these donuts won't replace Morning Call. Still, it's a sweet taste of home-away-from-home.