For the past 5 years, Just Add Coffee has been chugging along as a popular, well-liked hang out in SLC. 2 years ago, a Starbucks opened up right next to it. Instead of losing business and hanging up his hat, as many others have before him, Ed's business has actually enjoyed a spike in popularity. The story about The Little Indie Cafe That Could made the local ABC news, as did its controversial merchandise.
I'm not just writing this plug for Ed's cafe because he was cool enough to send me a box full of religiously irreverent t-shirts, bumper stickers, bracelets, and a cease and desist letter for using the image of The Angel Moroni in an ad (image copyrighted by the Church of Latter Day Saints). I'm writing this in hopes that if any of reading this are in SLC, you HAVE to get your ass over there and order up 10 lattes, pronto. And buy a t-shirt while you're at it. Because any independent business that operates in state which frowns on caffeine consumption, with a behemoth chain store RUN NEXT DOOR to it, deserves all the kudos it can get.
Here's to you, Ed. And here's to all of you nervous, jittery, conflicted BYU-ers who are lining up for your very first cup of coffee. Don't ask. Don't think. Just plunge wantonly into it's hot, steaming, illicit sweetness. And since you are now forever condemned to a lifetime of sin and blasphemy, you may as well go ahead and have premarital sex and a big glass of scotch on the rocks afterward, and maybe rob a bank on the way out, THERE IS NO DIFFERENCE IN THE EYES OF GOD.
Just do yourself a favor, kids. Your first time with coffee should never be at a Starbucks. Go here instead. And don't forget to tell your friends.
