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Steamers provide warmth on cold day
Feb. 12, 2008
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The Goat Coffee House
Address: 408 Water St.
Phone: 831-4491.
Hours: 6:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Mondays through Fridays; 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturdays.
Parking: On street or in nearby lots.
Prices: $2.75 for a small steamer.
Racy D'Lene's Coffee Lounge
Address: 404 Riverside Ave./405 Water St.
Phone: 834-0000.
Hours: 7 a.m. to midnight Mondays through Fridays; 8 a.m. to midnight Saturdays and Sundays.
Parking: On street or in nearby lots.
Prices: $1.75 for a small steamed milk.
Starbucks Coffee Co.
Address: 953 W. Clairemont Ave., Shopko Plaza.
Phone: 836-7320.
Hours: 5:30 a.m. to 11 p.m. daily.
Parking: In small lot on site and in plaza parking lot.
Prices: $2.64 for a small steamed milk.
Coffee Traders International Fresh Roast Cafe
Address: 2230 Eastridge Center off Hastings Way.
Phone: 838-8451.
Web site: www.coffeetradersinternational.com.
Hours: 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sundays; 6 a.m. to 9 p.m Mondays through Saturdays.
Parking: In nearby lot.
Prices: $2.49 for a small steamer.
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Say: "Lah-tay Kahl-doh." Latte caldo.
That's Italian for "hot milk."
But at espresso bars in Italy, it's much more: whole milk expertly steamed to order into light, luscious, silken, creamy semi-thickness. It's served unadorned, in a warmed cup, with a spoon and a dish of white sugar on the side.
You also can sweeten it with one of those fancy Italian flavoring syrups. We like caramel or coconut.
When done right, latte caldo is as comforting as the best hot chocolate and more warming than any coffee drink - with no caffeine.
Audrey first learned about latte caldo on a wet-cold December morning in 1987 at a little coffee counter in the central farmers market in Florence, Italy.
Two weeks ago on Water Street in Eau Claire, our Toyota decided that 22 below, with a fierce wind, made it simply impossible to move. We sought refuge in The Goat Coffee House and ordered ... steamers.
If you're lucky, ordering a steamer in the U.S. will get you close to a latte caldo.
At The Goat, we were lucky indeed. Behind the counter was a latte caldo connoisseur and a steaming genius. She transmuted 2 percent milk into a miracle, taking her time to charge and texture all of it from top to bottom with the finest micro-bubbles - and to heat it all the way to hot.
Delicious.
Elsewhere in Eau Claire recently, we had less luck.
Both Racy D'Lene's and Coffee Traders International were willing, but their techniques were weak. Their steamers arrived with some creamy-thin foam that subsided quickly into mere warm milk.
Astonishingly, Starbucks in the Shopko Plaza just filled a paper cup with milk foamed sometime earlier for cappuccino and handed it over. It was flat and tasteless under room-temperature froth.
Mysteriously, after we finished The Goat's great steamers, the Toyota started right away.
Main Course, the Leader-Telegram's restaurant review column, runs the fourth Sunday of the month. Diners' Notebook, a sampling of favorite restaurant offerings, runs the second Tuesday of the month.
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