Simply Op

Learn more

Coffee Ventures (OC)

07/29/2026 Today, I wanted to say Goodbye to OC coffee ventures. Believe it or not, rural Michigan is not really a cafe culture kind of place.

First: Pick a coffee shop to venture to
Dal Coffee in Buena Park (CA) – a new Korean cafe featuring specialty coffee & matcha
Second: Sit in the shop, take in the surroundings, and write a Yelp review 🙂
This was written on the concrete outside of the cafe entry door; I suspect a mystery person left their feedback in sharpie (lol).
After visiting a coffee shop, I usually try to get outside. Laguna Lake Park (Fullerton, CA) was in proximity and there were pictures of turtles online, so… it seemed like a worthy pick.
The loop around the “lake” is 3/4 mile and there were a lot of ducks!
People seemed to be fishing, gathering, walking, and riding bikes.
Felt like the tree reflections on the water could be considered art … :D.
My initial turtle sightings looked like this. They were in the water and swimming away (aka., difficult to capture). I started to lose hope when …
I found like 6-7 more turtles. This guy seemed happy in the sun.
He seemed relatively unbothered by the active duck nearby.
Is there a reason turtles put their feet out like this? Google says… yes & it’s normal.
Little turtle says, “You’re squashing me; move over.”
There is also an Equestrian Center (aka., I saw another horse).

When I first moved to Southern California, I spent the bulk of my time exploring cities (and beaches) by way of coffee shop. One could say my phone’s photo gallery was full of pictures of a coffee cup in my hand. At some point along the way, I became a Yelp Elite. It gave me a sense of purpose; it served as a place for my pictures to be seen, to spend time creatively writing reviews (that rhyme), and to offer support to businesses.

(If you are curious, my current CA YELP stats are as follows: 215+ coffee shops visited, 208 reviews written, 1121 photos uploaded, and 430447 views of my photos in the last 90 days.) I have left a coffee footprint. The ventures even inspired a coffee book that I wrote, was never published, and only a few elect family members read.

My repeat drink order went through the following phase sequence: black coffee, almond milk latte, cappuccino, flat-white, decaf coffee, hojicha, and matcha. I solo celebrated hitting 100 coffee shops (making my own milestone). After I exceeded coffee shop count 200, my ventures slowed significantly and I seemed to enjoy being a “regular” more. I have been a “regular” at Reborn Coffee, Cassel Earth Coffee, Nook Coffee, and Mircale Coffee to name a few. The benefits of being a “regular” are being known by name/order, getting to provide feedback on new drinks/eats by way of sample, learning the names/stories of the baristas, getting to watch community in action, and being called out upon disappearance.

My relationship with coffee ventures started out strong with each venture like a dopamine hit. It was all so new! I had never had so many options at my fingertips in my entire life. As time went on, though, I started to realize that I was using coffee stops to fill a void. The void was connection. Whenever I felt alone or had nowhere to be, I would go to a coffee shop. The coffee shop gave me a place to be seen and witnessed in the world. What started as a weekend only venture became a daily habit. The coffee shop welcomed me on birthdays, holidays by myself, before work, and on the weekends. Even though I had so much love and gratitude for the coffee shops, I started to resent them. I started to dislike being known for chasing coffee. I started to dislike the superficiality of it all. There were times that I would go to a coffee shop and feel so restless or overwhelmed by my surroundings that I would just leave. Even as a “regular”, I did not feel truly known (cue loneliness); coffee/matcha ordering from the barista is not a replacement of true (deep) connection. I had to work to reframe my thinking about coffee shop connections and to find my love for coffee ventures, again. It took time!

At the end of the day, I love the mission that is the coffee shop, enjoy coffee ventures, and appreciate so many coffee shop owners/baristas. I wouldn’t know the streets and cities of OC as well as I do if I hadn’t pursued coffee shop exploration. Even today, my phone was too hot to function. Yet, I miraculously found my way back home.

Thank you, OC Coffee shops, for making me feel seen, giving me a place to be, writing my name on my cups (even in Korean), extending kindness/acts of generosity (like a cool t-shirt), fueling my creative outlets, and ensuring that I’m never without a drink (or treat) on any given day. xo You will be missed!!!

Leave a comment