Sunroof Coffee
Going into this project, Sunroof Coffee was the place I was most excited to visit. I’ve heard a lot about it, and I’ve seen a lot of aesthetic Instagram stories with Sunroof Coffee cups in the background. When I showed my roommate, Dorothy, my list of coffee places to go to, this was the place she requested to go to, so clearly she’s been similarly influenced.
Like 1000 Faces, Sunroof was also founded in downtown Athens and has expanded to two locations. Also similar to my 1000 Faces review, I ended up going to the non-downtown location. This time, completely by accident. Dorothy was the one to drive us, and she was the one who put it into her maps. So, if my review is compromised by the fact that I didn’t visit the more popular downtown location, you can blame her.
On Sunday, March 29, Dorothy and I drive over to Sunroof Coffee after church. We’re going to attend a Rock Lobster’s game later in the afternoon at four, so we decided a quick coffee run after the service would be a good start to the day’s festivities.
As I mentioned before, Dorothy is my roommate, but she’s also one of my best friends. We actually went to middle and high school together, but it wasn’t until college that we were forced to hang out with each other through our mutual friend, Rian (who will also make an appearance in this project). We had both heard of each other in high school without really interacting, but on move-in day last year, I found myself sitting across from her and Rian at O-House dining hall and realized we would have to get to know each other.
Since Dorothy is also a Christian, she and I started going to the student ministry at Prince Avenue together out of awkward convenience. But, what resulted from this arrangement was a deep, intimate friendship that I never could have imagined before starting college. We suddenly weren’t just friends of a friend, but we had our own relationship. Suddenly, we started hanging out outside of church, just the two of us. And this new relationship only strengthened the trio that me, her, and Rian had found ourselves in.
Looking back on freshman year, my friendship with Dorothy is probably the greatest thing that came out of it. And now, we’re roommates, grabbing coffee before heading back to our shared home.
Again, I didn’t know that there were two locations before this, so I was expecting to end up at your typical downtown coffee shop. Instead, Dorothy and I pull up to a group of food stalls in the middle of two apartment complexes. The stalls are made up of what look like gray shipping containers, facing each other to create small seating areas in between them. Sunroof Coffee is in one of these stalls, consisting of only a walk-up counter and a few tables outside.
“Is this the right place?” Dorothy asks skeptically as we pull in. Both of us are expecting something a little different than the stark, industrial stall in front of us, especially considering the summery coffee shop aesthetic we had previously seen for the place online. But there’s plenty of people enjoying their coffee outside, so we simply shrug and head to the counter to order.
Despite the cold, gray exterior, Sunroof is doing what it can to make the space feel cozy. Cute, colorful lawn chairs are set up to sit in, the menu advertises cute specialty drinks, and there’s even a small merch stand set up with t-shirts, tote bags and coffee beans. I order a large (16 oz) iced chai latte, and Dorothy orders an iced specialty latte called the “Scout’s Honor.” It’s some sort of gharamcracker flavored monstrosity topped with a toasted marshmallow on a stick. A few minutes later, our drinks come out, and we migrate over to the side of the courtyard and sit down at a table.
To put it bluntly, the chai is not very good. Again, I’m in no way a spice connoisseur, and I couldn’t give you any kind of names for what was actually in it, but the spice had a weird citrus element that completely overpowered everything and left a horrible aftertaste. Every time I took a sip, I would forget why I didn’t like it before getting hit with what Dorothy and I lovingly referred to as “after-spice.” The drink was sweet, and the consistency wasn’t terrible, but the spice was really drowning everything out. Given how much Sunroof had been hyped up to me, I was pretty disappointed.
That being said, everyone who has recommended Sunroof to me praises the coffee, not the chai. But Dorothy wasn’t impressed with her drink either.
“It’s good, but I feel like I could get this at like Starbucks or something. I don’t really taste the graham cracker at all and this was like $7.00.” she says, holding up her tiny coffee cup and inspecting it in the light like it’ll reveal some secret flavor she missed. She lets me try it, and I agree. Pretty good, but not worth the premium $7.00 price tag.
While I’ve never been to this location before, I remember that I had been to this area of Athens a few weeks prior with my cousin. She wanted to visit a children’s toy and craft store she had seen on Instagram while she was in town. The store, Treehouse Kid and Craft, was really cute on the inside, and it had a lot of fun crafty merchandise for adults as well. I look online and see that it’s only a few streets down from us.
Dorothy and I sit at the table outside for a few minutes, but it’s chilly outside, and neither of us are too enthused about shivering at a table with drinks that neither of us really like. So, I suggest we leave and check out Treehouse. Dorothy readily agrees. In total, we’re probably only at Sunroof for 15 minutes.
On the way over to Treehouse, Dorothy and I notice that the new Avid Bookshop location is right next door, so we decide to walk through there first. We’re both avid readers (get it?), but neither of us have ever been. There’s no one in there besides the employees, and it’s almost completely silent in the store. Still, Dorothy and I have a blast going through the aisles. She recommends books she’s read to me, and I recommend books to her.
There’s an ease of being with Dorothy that I don’t feel often with other people. In any other situation, I’d be worried about talking too loud or walking in this store without any intention of buying anything. But Dorothy and I can just talk and make dumb jokes and have a good time without worrying what other people think of us. Even though our plans have derailed, both of us are equally along for the ride. We make plans to come back when we have the money to actually buy books, and we head over to Treehouse.
Treehouse is a colorful, whimsical explosion. Children’s toys, stuffed animals, blind-boxes, you name it, they probably have some cute version of it. Dorothy is instantly enamoured when we walk in, and we probably spend triple the time we spent at Sunroof inside the store, slowly sipping on our watered down drinks. Once again, I’m stuck by how easy it is to be Dorothy’s friend. At one point, she picks up two different stickers of cartoon ghosts, one with a book and one with a pair of headphones.
“That’s me and you!” she says. “We need to buy these so everyone knows we’re friends.”
It’s a stupid and silly joke, and we don’t even buy the stickers, but it feels good to know that she feels as comfortable in our friendship as I do. It’s easy to show affection and appreciation with Dorothy. Maybe it’s so easy to talk about our friendship in this way because just two years ago, neither of us could have ever imagined we would be as close as we are now.
Over the past two years, I’ve learned the best things in life are the things we can’t predict. I didn’t predict that Dorothy and I would leave Sunroof after a few minutes and go off on our own. But we did, and our little shopping excursion was infinitely more entertaining than sitting at a cold metal table. And sitting at the dining hall that first night of college, I never would have predicted that a girl I barely knew would become one of my best friends.
