Port Elizabeth Coffee Crawl: La Boca

To our friends at La Boca.... I did not forget about you. The day after our November 15 Coffee Crawl Lou and I, Liz and Rebecca left for a little vacation to Hermanus and Cape Agulas to bid farewell for the year to the Southern Right Whales as they pass the South African coast on their annual migration to the Antarctic waters. We returned from our Western Cape respite just in time to celebrate Thanksgiving. Now, here I sit with the weekend well upon us and the La Boca post way past due.

I first heard about La Boca right after it opened a few months ago from a customer at Refresh (Sept, 2012 post) when we were at that shop for the Crawl. La Boca got placed on the ever-growing list of coffee shops to visit, and shortly afterward Vicki did a reconnaissance mission to check it out. The circa 1896 structure, previously housing the Willet & Co chemist and which now La Boca calls home, is situated on the corner of Clyde and Lawrence Streets in Central. It took owner Garth Metrovich nine months to renovate the building and turn it into his dream coffee shop/artisan bakery/deli/confectioner/bistro which he named after the La Boca suburb of Buenos Aires where he lived some time ago. A fun eclectic decor reaches into the various rooms of the building. Seating about twenty customers apiece, each small room has its own flavor, creating the feel of many small coffee shops within the larger whole. The outside area has a number of picnic tables and features a pretty walkway, shade trees and a koi pond.

Meet the Owner
Garth Metrovich

Our November 15 Crawl group, Colleen Le Roux, Margaret Zoetmulder, Stella and Beryl Dawson, Fran and Mandy de Beer, Gail Darne, Beth Vieira, Vicki Minnaar, Kathy Roppel, Nomusa Nkomo, and my daughter, Liz, decided to take advantage of the gorgeous weather and chose to sit outside. It was a beautiful setting for the Crawl. Our second-day-on-the-job waiter, Donnay, kept right on top of things as he served the cake and La Boca Brand coffee Special (only R25!) to everyone (whose diets would start the next week). Barista Alvin did a great job with the coffee and tea beverages.

Meet the Barista
Alvin

Meet our Waiter
Donnay

La Boca offers breakfast, lunch, pastries, and hot/cold beverages, and the menu proudly states, "We only support local organic farmers." Most noted by the Crawlers were the excellent prices for all the selections on the menu. La Boca is open Mon - Fri, 7:30 - 5, Sat, 7:30 - 4-ish, closed on Sunday. Seating is available for up to seventy people.

This Week's Crawlers
Mandy, Kathy, Liz, Beth, Vicki, Stella, Donnay, Fran,
Colleen, Margaret, Beryl, Gail

The under ? Crowd
Mandy, Liz, Nomusa

Now, my daughter, Liz, and her friend, Rebecca, have been in PE for the past few months volunteering at various places in town. Talk at the table on Crawl Day centered around their experiences, especially on the couple of days a week they spend at SAMREC (South African Marine Rehabilitation and Education Centre, and home of the Flying Penguin Cafe - March, 2012 post). Liz regaled us with stories of feeding and caring for the penguins. She has come to recognize each "patient" at the rehab centre by name! Her most priceless comment as her rapt audience hung on her every word, "It's not that bad getting pooped on by birds." Well, this brought back to all of us fond memories of our Bird Street Coffee Shop visit (March, 2012 post) when Margaret was dumped on by a low-flying feathered friend..... wasn't that bad, right Margaret?
That story got us reminiscing about other "Crawl bloopers" that we've experienced..... memories we will all cherish!!! Makes me want to go back and read some of the old posts.

~Thank you to Garth and the La Boca staff
~Good luck with your new job, Donnay!
~Belated Thanksgiving wishes to my friends and family in the U.S.
~Happy Birthday to Sean in Washington, DC - November 26

Until next week,

Ellen