Maté Factor, Savannah Georgia

 Maté Factor,  Savannah Georgia

 

It’s easy to step into a ‘Gimmeyerbucks’ for a caramel chocolate latté with whipped yak cream, or pop into a McDucks for a 55¢ senior coffee.

 

But, if you want great coffee, comfort, and a quaint spot to relax and enjoy your book, or have a quiet conversation with friends, you have to search, and you have to be particular.  I have a close friend who scratched his way through any number of goofle pages to find a gem in Savannah Georgia, Maté Factor, which is both coffee house and boutique bakery.

 

It’s a tiny, very quaint spot on a corner in a quiet section of town, with plenty of parking, which for Savannah is akin to finding a hundred dollar bill in your mailbox, two days in a row.

 

But, more about the Maté Factor, which as near as I can tell means mate factor, or girlfriend in French, Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese.  But, all those languages have so very many local dialects that I won’t take a bet.  Not blasting languages foreign to us, not when English has creek and crick, and we’re able to bear the pain of seeing a bear in the woods.

Enough chit-chat.  What’s it like to have a coffee or tea at Maté Factor?  It’s like joining an artist for a chat in the comfortable corner of his small, well-kept, hundred year old studio.  You feel special.  The conversation feels special.  You’re sure this is the start of a wonderful novel that you can’t wait to write.  You picture Hemingway at a favorite, aged Madrid hangout on a narrow cobblestone street, gently sipping an espresso, while he’s jotting notes with a stubby pencil in his well-worn Moleskin notebook.

 

Or maybe you’re not of an artistic bent and you’re thinking, “Hey, this is great coffee and we’ve got another hour before the ballgame starts.”  If so, stick with McDuck’s.

 

Maté Factor is a place of quiet leisure and reflection, a place you’d like to visit every day and if your friends can’t join you, you’d come anyway and bring a book…or write one.