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About a year ago I decided to become vegetarian. Well, not quite vegetarian. Pescetarian. I still haven’t given up eating fish (or dairy). I decided to become pescetarian one night when I was out to dinner at a Chinese restaurant with some friends. One of those friends is vegan, and was the only non-omnivore in the group. Once this was realised, people started asking questions about his reasons for being vegan and jokingly criticising his choice of diet. For whatever reason, I found this incredibly rude - I’ve never heard people ask or jokingly criticise Jews about their reasons for not eating pig, I didn’t see how there was a difference in this case. So for that evening I decided to be vegan in sympathy with my friend. Talking with my vegan friend during dinner and afterwards, I came to understand a little of his reasons for being vegan. Part of it was because he had recently read Peter Singer’s book Animal Liberation. Looking into reasons for vegetarianism/veganism for myself, I realised it was a good thing and not something I could happily ignore after finding out about it. That was why I stopped eating the meat of land animals - I’m not as strong-willed as my friend - I still eat fish and eggs, cheese.

I’m going to list the reasons I’m a pescetarian. This isn’t going to be a self-righteous rant. The reason I’m writing this is so I can summarise it for myself and others when I’m asked about it (as I often am by my friends :P ). In no particular order, the reasons why I don’t eat meat:

1. Meat production is bad for the environment. The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation published a report in 2006, that went into some depth about the affect of meat production on the environment. I haven’t read the whole report, just snippets of it, but it was enough to convince me that eating meat is not always a good thing, no matter how delicious. Clearly others agree.
2. Most animals bred for their meat are fed grain which is much better served feeding people. This gets a bit complicated. Basically, 7kg of grain produces 1kg of beef, with similar conversion factors for other types of meat (including fish). Huge numbers of people around the world go hungry  everyday, it doesn’t make sense to use grain to feed livestock so rich people can eat meat. There’s a report here which goes into the specifics of the impact of meat production on grain and water supplies around the world. The article is a little old, but the situation remains the same (or worse) as when it was written.
3. To eat meat (and indeed to subject animals to any treatment to which we would not subject humans) is speciesist. This is the primary focus of Animal Liberation. Peter Singer has written a short essay on this and animal liberation, which you may read if you don’t feel like reading the entire book. After reading the Wikipedia article on speciesism while writing this post, I realised that the Orson Scott Card book Speaker for the Dead touches on this a little.

I’ve always regarded pescetarianism as a stepping stone to eventually being vegan. After re-reading some of these articles while writing this post I’ve realised how bad it is to still be eating fish, and now I feel the day I become vegan (or atleast give up eating fish) will be sooner rather than later.

The title of this post is a quote from a friend of mine who once joked that my being vegetarian explained everything I did. Even though I’ve been pescetarian for a year now, I’m still often quizzed about it by friends. Now I’ll be able to point them to this post to explain the details :)

Today I really felt like coffee and a slice of carrot cake. So I went out in search of a likely cafe and subsequently was exposed to the worst cafe experience I’ve had in Melbourne in the last 5 years. However, instead of moan about it I decided I would do something useful and write list of things which contribute to a good cafe experience. Because God knows there’s enough people moaning about things on the internet. I swear I’ll never let my blog sink to that level.

I’m not claiming to be a cafe expert or anything, but I have spent a fair amount of time in them over the years ;) This list isn’t in any particular order, I think each of these things is equally important in establishing a nice atmosphere and cafe experience.

1) Make sure there’s enough space. Space for customers, space for decent tables. Customers waiting for take away coffees should have enough space to stand without the customers at tables getting someone’s bum in their face :P

2) Employ competent staff. I don’t care if your auntie’s brother’s sister’s boyfriend’s niece can make coffee, you shouldn’t employ them if they’re not able to interact with people without scowling at them. Also, there’s a big difference between being able to make coffee and being able to make good coffee

3) Make sure there’s atleast two staff at all times. A customer shouldn’t have to wait 2mins to be served when there’s only 5 people in the cafe and only one staff member making coffees and taking orders.

4) Do not have a bell/beeper on the door. It is so annoying.

5) If you’re going to provide your patrons with newspapers to read while they drink their coffee (and I highly recommend it), make sure the tables are big enough. There are few things more frustrating than trying to read a broadsheet on a tiny table.

6) Do not play pop rock or the radio. Music is fine but it should be low key stuff that isn’t likely to offend. People don’t go to cafes to listen to songs they would hear in a nightclub.

7) Use a decent brand (and grade) of coffee. I don’t go to places that advertise as selling Vittoria/Lavazza/Grinders/Dimattina/etc any more. A decent brand in Melbourne is Veneziano. I went on a tour of the place they roast their beans and they really know their stuff.

8) Provide water for your customers. Even if aren’t providing table service you should have a couple of jugs of cold water and glasses in a convenient place for your customers to drink.

9) Sell carrot cake. Seriously. Carrot cake + coffee = bliss, they are perfect together.

The cafe I was at today did none of the above things. None. It was awful. I guarantee that if you do all of the above simple things you will have people flocking to your cafe, and they will leave happy, and come back again.

Other good but not obligatory things:

1) Open at 7am and stay open until atleast 8pm everyday.

2) Do a good range of juice. Not just orange and apple. Cranberry, pineapple, grapefruit and tomato are good as well.

3) Provide newspapers for the customers to read, and not just the Herald Sun.

4) Outdoor seating can be really good, depending on location (not too close to a busy road otherwise the customers will be breathing fumes).

What other things contribute to a good cafe experience?