Judging Java: First Watch

Written By Jake Dabkowski, Coffee Columnist

Recently, I ate breakfast. I eat breakfast every day, but what I mean is that recently I ate breakfast. Typically my breakfasts consist of either an oatmeal, some eggs, or bowl of the greatest cereal of all time, Frosted Flakes.

Every once in a while, though, I treat myself to a nice breakfast out. On a warm Sunday morning, my girlfriend and I went to First Watch in Robinson, for a hearty meal. Because I do not eat a big breakfast very often, I stuffed myself. Avocado toast, two eggs, and a chocolate chip pancake was an absolutely legendary combo, but I’m not here to talk about breakfast. I’m here to talk about their coffee.

First Watch offers unlimited, bottomless coffee, which comes from Project Sunrise, a high quality coffee company that places an emphasis on their beans being grown ethically. In short, it is very good coffee.

That being said, there is an issue with bottomless coffee that may or may not affect an individual: the jitters. Drinking four cups of coffee in one sitting is a lot of coffee, and if you get anxious drinking coffee I would recommend opting for their iced coffee, which is not bottomless but comes with vanilla flavoring and is naturally sweetened.

When I went to First Watch, I drank way too much coffee. To be fair, this happened on accident, but I will explain. My journey to First Watch began with a mission for the day, my girlfriend and I set out to Robinson to look for back issues of the underground, independent comic Love and Rockets, and intended to search the comic book stores in the Robinson area for issues.

We put our name in online at First Watch, and when we got their they were swarmed. Luckily, by the wonders of technology, we were spared a lengthy wait and were seated immediately. The waitress asked “who’s having coffee?” And I said, “me.” So she brought out the coffee pot. I then drank a lot of coffee.

I drank a cup and then I ordered the avocado toast, two eggs, and chocolate chip pancake. The avocado toast and eggs came out, and I grubbed them down, and then glugged down more coffee. Then, we waited for our pancake. And drank coffee. And waited for our pancake. And drank more coffee. And waited for our pancake. And then drank more coffee. We almost finished the pot, when finally our waitress apologized for the delay on the pancake and told us it would be free. To celebrate scoring a free pancake we drank more coffee.

The rest of the morning, I had the jitters. Straight up, I was shaking. Luckily, I am smart enough to know that the jitters are temporary, and that memories of a pleasant breakfast with your life partner are forever. So we braved out into the Robinson area to find some Love and Rockets but did not find any. As a close runner up I got a nice cardigan.