You know I have to comment on this, right?

As the self appointed voice of reason on the matter of the Lower East Side Starbucks, I couldn't help but giggle like a schoolgirl upon reading an LES blogger declare her love for the Delancey/Allen Starbucks (via Eater).

But really, I don't judge. Some people like their coffee like that and Delancey Street was always a strip mall anyway. And the only reason I won't set foot in that Starbucks isn't because I'm boycotting it or anything.

88 Orchard is simply closer to spinachdip HQ and they don't charge me gazillion dollars a minute to use the internet. That, and I'd have to pass it on the way to Starbucks and I'd be weighed down by guilt. When I pass by their window, the nice girl at the counter knows. She just does.

Hermitude (happy birthday, yo) lists a couple of alternative coffee shops on the Lower East Side, and I can assure Nichelle that the bathroom at 88 is regularly cleaned and generally free of needles left behind by homeless guys.