The Burr in the Burbs

Today, I came to Redlands, CA. It’s west of LA by San Bernardino. The weather is wonderful. I arrived a little early, so before going to the church I drove around the university campus looking for coffee. One shop, in particular caught my attention. The sign said: “The Bean and Leaf.” I seemed to recall a place in PA with a similar name that was a combo coffee and tobacco shop. Since I like to occasionally puff on a pipe, this place looked promising. Y’see, I can only smoke my pipe when I’m out on trips like this because my wife and son can’t tolerate the smoke. Boy was I ever disappointed when I found out the full name was The Coffee Bean and the Tea Leaf. Tea!? Drat!!!

So since I was already there, I stomped inside and barked my order. As I calmed down from my profound disappointment, I sat in the puffy chair and proceeded to goof off. In the course of the 40 minutes I was there, the cute little blue-haired barrista with multiple tattoos and piercings came and expelled two different people at two different times. One guy for eating a sandwich and the other a lady licking an ice cream cone. It seems this was a kosher coffee bar. No non-kosher foods were allowed. I’d never been in a kosher coffee shop before.

Nowadays, so many churches are watering down their doctrines for fear of offending the visitors. Even though I have no interest in kosher laws, it’s kind of refreshing to see people who take their religion seriously enough to say, “conform or scram.”