NO COFFEE FOR YOU

Those of you who know me know that I'm quite protective of my coffee. It's my very own ambrosia, that without which I cannot start my day. I have been known to yell at people who accidentally (?) put their trash in my coffee - SERIOUSLY HOW DOES ONE DO THIS? I still don't understand.

Denizens of the UK have an occasionally poor understanding of customer service. I woke up late yesterday and wandered over to Starbucks on The Royal Mile in EDI for my daily infusion. When I walked back to my hotel, I noticed some friends sitting in the bar. Coffee in hand, I walked over to say hi and promptly sat down at the bar to join the conversation.

Unfortunately, the mid-20's bartender took issues with my cup of coffee. "You can't drink that in here," she said.

"What? Why not?" I ask.

"You can't drink that in here, you have to go over there."

"What if I buy something?" My brows are furrowed in puzzlement.

"You still can't drink it in here." She's insistent.

"You've gotta be kidding me."

Finally she loses her temper. "It's not MY rule," she fumes.

Embarassed, I put on my coat and leave. I'm outraged. I'm not about to throw away my coffee, that I paid one pound seventy pence for just for the so-called privilege of sitting in your crappy bar. (That's over $3 in American money - yes, for a cup of coffee. I'm talking a simple cup of coffee, not a frou frou frappe, latte, or cappucino, just a simple cup of joe.)

I don't understand this rule. It just seems so weird to me - you can't drink coffee from another store in this establishment. Do you want my business at all? If you had let me sit there and drink my coffee the likelihood that I would buy a drink probably would have gone up, thereby making money for your establishment. I mean, what kind of ridiculous rule is this to enforce? There are rules that you kind of let people bend - like when we tell people it's time to turn off their electronic devices, we give them a few minutes to finish their conversations on their cellphones or pretend to not notice that they are still fiddling with their Blackberries. (Frankly it's hard to care that much about these rules - we've told you a bazillion times to turn it off, we've explained the reasoning but I'm not the freaking police and I can't arrest you if you break these rules) Seriously, if it had been me working the bar, I would have just ignored the coffee cup and if questioned about it later, I'd deny that I saw anything. HELLO.