Underdressed and Over-Caffeinated in the C.D.

 

10/30/25 Peloton Cafe and bike shop, Central District

With temps in the high 40s when I set out in the morning, I thought four layers would be sufficient. I was wrong. Although the sun came out occasionally, Mary Jean, Roy and I all complained of being cold most of the day. Even so, it was fun exploring a part of the Central District neighborhood that I don’t visit often, and riding the streetcar to get anywhere always feels like a small excursion.

Our first stop was Peloton Café, which is both a restaurant and, oddly, a bike repair shop. We stuck it out as long as we could stand the cold, sketching outside. The old building that houses Peloton has interesting architectural details and lots of windows (top of post). If it had been warmer, I might have enjoyed sketching more of it.

Light rail riders and Peloton Cafe decor

After lunch, we walked a few blocks to Drip Drip Coffee, a Vietnamese coffee shop with many colorful beverages on the menu. You can order them either iced or hot, so of course I ordered my matcha latte hot (with an extra dollop of purple ube foam). I was looking forward to sketching that beautiful green and purple beverage, but very sadly, only the iced beverages come in transparent glasses. Hot beverages come in white paper coffee cups through which the layered colors aren’t visible. That was disappointing.

This page needed one more horizontal element to be complete, but I couldn't find anything to fit in the space. 

Also disappointing was that while my matcha latte was tasty and hot, it wasn’t what I really wanted. I really wanted one of the multitude of fancy, overpriced coffee beverages, but I learned that they are all made from premixed syrups, so it’s not possible to get any of them as decaf. The server told me that the matcha latte would be my least caffeinated option (though I had my doubts later as I heard myself talking faster and faster).

Oh, well. At least I got to sketch the rear end of a car that seemed to be held together with tape. And sketching with good friends any day is better than not.