Week of May 9th 2011: Ma*velous

So I actually had kind of an interesting experience with one. Ma*velous is the only "new place" where my first and second trip occurred in the first week. Even more interestingly, my two trips were for completely opposite reasons...

Ma*velous first popped onto my radar when I was researching places for my Coffee Shop Study Challenges. 7x7 had been raving about the new shop and I couldn't wait to check it out. It also had the added benefit of a being a short walk from my apartment. However, everything that I had read about it indicated that it was a coffee shop so when my friend, Joe, offered to take me there for a wine night since he couldn't make it to my birthday celebration the week before. As it turns out, Ma*velous is a coffee shop and wine bar - a combination that definitely piqued my interest.

On the Wednesday night we went there, the shop was pretty quiet which made it perfect for two friends to talk over some glasses of wine. There was actually a very decent selection of wines by the glass which allowed Joe and I to sample a decent amount of the menu. The owner (and sole employee on both of my visits), Phil Ma, was very knowledgeable about the wines he had on hand and was very friendly the whole time we were in his cafe. Joe and I also managed to find quite a bit of entertainment by people-watching some of the passersby. All in all, it was a great place to have a few glasses of wine.

However - I'd read so much about the coffee aspect of the shop that I didn't want this blog post to only be about the wine so I decided to make myself another loophole - as long as it was still the same week a post could encompass multiple trips. So that Saturday, I grabbed my books and headed out to Ma*velous. Technically, it would fall under my coffee challenge, but since this post is long already, I'll give you a more condensed version of my normal rankings.

If you remember, after I went to Blue Bottle, I was really excited to try Siphon Pot coffee. As far as I am aware, they are fairly rare. Mint Plaza Blue Bottle has one... and so does Ma*velous. Even though it's a little pricey, I knew I had to splurge for it. I ended up getting a cheaper coffee than what Phil Ma suggested so it didn't taste quite as good as I'd hoped but boy was it worth the light show. It terms of cool, it definitely would have gotten a 10.

Ma*velous also proved to be a great place to study if you found the right seat. There are several nooks and dark corners where you could get lost and minimize distractions. It also doesn't get terribly crowded on weekends so you don't feel so bad taking up a seat for a while. If you get a siphon pot - it takes a while to drink anyways so that will help pad the study hours as well.

If you get a chance to watch the siphon video then you'll know that this place aced presentation and novelty as well. There was a good selection of coffees as well and the menu read more like the wine menu than a coffee menu.

I really enjoyed my trips to Ma*velous and can't wait to make it back for some more study trips over the next few months.