Adventures with the Dancing Goats

In November I went over to the university where I used to teach to meet a friend for lunch. She had parked up the street from the offices in front of a place new to me, The Dancing Goats Coffee Shop. This coffee shop is located in an old brick building, but I can't remember what it used to be.

Last week I had a meeting again at the university related to my retirement funds. (That is a whole different story and I'm glad to report that all I got was good news.) The university is presently building a parking ramp in the area that had been the parking lot, so parking is severely limited at the university. Thus, I had chosen to ride the bus, so I could return from just about anywhere, and so I decided to walk over to visit the Dancing Goats. And I found plenty of goats in the decoration of the shop.

 But what does coffee have to do with goats?

Well, on the wall inside the shop there is a short story stenciled on the wall. This story explains that long, long ago an Ethiopian goat herder noticed that when the goats ate a red berry the goats would leap and "dance." He collected some of these berries and took them to a monastery. There the berries were tossed in a fire and everyone noticed how good they smelled. The people in the monastery tasted the berries and that's how coffee was born! At least that is one explanation for it!

If you are in St. Paul, find this charming coffee shop.