Sometimes I need a change of pace. Sitting within the walls of the TECH Center watching a lax bro strap a hair tie around his mane and pick his nose just isn’t conducive to studying for me. The same goes for listening to the chick next to me lick the salt that Richie threw on her French fries off of her fingers. It just doesn’t work. And by it, I mean me.
Especially not on a Saturday afternoon when I could be quite literally anywhere else. That’s why I Uber’d over to One Shot coffee shop, the eclectic coffee connoisseur situated in Northern Liberties.
When you first walk into One Shot you are greeted by a stylish and smiling staff, one of whom is a Temple senior. Jill O’Connell, who’s worked at One Shot for two months now, informed me that the café makes their own chai and own a customized coffee blend sent to them from Stumptown Coffee Roasters in Brooklyn. So, basically, you’re just not going to get these flavors anywhere else.
And why would you want to!? After ordering a raspberry rose latte with almond milk (yum!), Jill instructed me to check out the second floor. And frankly, when I got to the top of the stairs, I decided that I never wanted to be stuck in the TECH Center again. The guy underneath the man bun was, alas, not a lax bro, but a full-fledged MAN trying to make sense of an Ezra Pound poem. The chick next to him was eating what I assumed to be the “Hummus garden bagel” that had caught my eye on the hand made menu downstairs. I didn’t see her lick one finger!
My seat, a well-loved sofa that hugged my bum just right, matched the flavor of my flowery brew and immediately told my brain to get its s*** together. Before I even had the chance to awkwardly ask a barista for the wifi password, my laptop was out and my fingers were moving, finishing the homework I couldn’t quite get a grasp on the day before. Maybe it was the walls of books infusing me with their potential knowledge or the abundance of plants increasing oxygen flow to my brain, but for some reason I finally had the will to work.
Granted, my coffee was $7 and my Uber driver was creepy, but if you want to put an end to the monotony of on campus study spots, make the short trip One Shot and bust your homework out in style.