Starbucks...gaybucks...and the importance of "pretty"

Omg...the Dupont Circle Starbucks.  How East Coast is this?  Totally.

I walk by 3 Starbucks on my 10 minute walk to work.  Now, I'm from Seattle originally.  I could make the trite commentary about how Starbucks is "burnt" coffee, edges out independent coffee shops and causes world famine and genocide...but no.  I like Starbucks.  I actually enjoy the coffee and I like that it's reliably on EVERY street corner in America.  

Now, I thought that surely Starbucks would be the great equalizer between Cali and the District.  It really is the McDonald's of coffee shops.  But, I didn't think about the difference in Baristas.  This occurred to me the other day when I stopped at my usual Starbucks on Dupont Circle (Ok, yes...because more cute, cruisy gay boys go there than the one on N Street...so sue me).  I ordered my venti iced coffee and the very cute, somewhat metrosex barista asked me, "so...do you think Stevens is gonna get reelected?"  I had the same look on my face as that South Carolinian beauty queen from Youtube. 

 After staring at him blankly for about 30 seconds, I noticed he was checking out my chest.  Nice!  But then, I realized he was looking at my University of Alaska Fairbanks t-shirt (Go Nanooks!).  Those of you who know me know that I love Alaska.

Well, finally the gerbil running on a wheel that was my brain on a Saturday afternoon kicked in and I started having a discussion with him at the counter about whether the drilling in the Alaska Wildlife Refuge was going affect Senator Ted Stevens electability more than his budget and appropriations scandal.  After this mental workout of a conversation at the Starbucks counter in the District, I asked the cute barista on my way out, "are you FROM Alaska?"  "No," he replied," I'm just a politico.  Wow, no kidding.

Cut to the Starbucks (or "gaybucks") on Santa Monica Boulevard...

Now, for those of you haven't patronized WeHo's crown jewel of Starbucks, here are some of its key elements:

- Located across the street from the largest gym in WeHo, the original Pinkberry, next door to Trader Joes and one of those bougie versions of Jamba Juice...oh, and how can I forget that it's also across the street from LASC, a department store for gay men.

- The setup: there is a literal runway through the middle of the shop and every table is set up in a circular fashion so that everyone can see EVERYONE else from anywhere in the store.

- Tyra Banks did an episode of America's Next Top Model there....I think we're done now.

So, Gaybucks is a unique store in and of itself, but my conversations with the baristas there didn't really involve senators...or...really much of any substance at all.  My gerbil wheel brain didn't get too stressed out there.  Like every other member of the food service industry in Hollywood, just about everyone at the WeHo gaybucks was trying to get into the industry, which meant that most of them were:

pretty

You see, as much as I appreciated my cute metrosex boy talking to me about Alaskan senators, it distracted me from the important part: that he was pretty.  There's something so much more efficient about talking about what's on your Tivo when you're flirting with baristas at gaybucks.  The gerbil doesn't have to run very hard on the wheel and all you really have to do is whip out a smile and dump your change in the tip jar, and you're like totally BFF with each other.

So, as is the case with all of these posts so far...I love the daily intellectual substance of even the smallest transactions in the District, but then I always miss the total fluff of WeHo and my dedication to that ever-important concept: pretty.

Next time...I hope to start busting out the digital camera to capture some precious scenes and moments from the beltway.