Gems: Mayalu Coffee
Des Moines' Nepali Chai, er, Coffee Shop
It’s in the details.
That thought hit me as I was leaving Mayalu Coffee this morning, May 1st.
For weeks, I’d been agonizing over this question: What makes an eatery a gem? To answer the question, I tried my usual approach of listing criteria:
It’s locally owned.
It’s unique.
It’s genuine.
It’s
goodtasty*.
My list was too vague, so I got stuck. But I’d set a deadline and spoke it into existence, so I had to figure out the answer. Fast.
Normally on Wednesday mornings, I hit up Mayalu’s drive-thru window between my chiropractic appointment and therapy. Thus, I wasn’t a stranger to Mayalu’s beautiful beverages. But why did I think of it as a gem? The specifics of gem-worthiness still eluded me, even though I knew Mayalu counted.