Man

[prog]

I'm going to have to cross O'Naturals off my list of friendly hang-out places. The free wireless and tasty scones make me keep forgetting, but it's developed a ding I can't really overlook: it's successfully positioned itself as a more family-friendly alt to the Diesel (not that the Diesel is un-FF, but O'N has a little play area, and Diesel doesn't, so there), so it's always full of several last names' worth of utterly random-acting babies & toddlers noodling around. Which I'd normally be able to deal with -- my sphere of awareness is quite small -- except for the fact at O'Naturals is basically one large room with some truly outstanding echo effects.

Yyyyyyikes.

Also the coffee blows. But the scones, man. I guess that's what to-go bags are for.

Comments

[greenlily.livejournal.com]

Yeesh. The suckitude of the coffee is a deal-breaker, IMHO...and keep in mind, I like little kids.

[prog.livejournal.com]

I like kids depending on context. I find myself wary of strangers' kids in public, and annoyed by strangers doting on their kids. And really annoyed by the combination of kid-noise and doting-noise echoing freely through the O'Naturals cavern.

[ex-colorwhe.livejournal.com]

also? their brownies are made with coffee, so i can't eat them. eff that

[leighjen.livejournal.com]

Brownies made with coffee? I got to get me some of that!

Seriously, what are their meals options like? And what are their prices like? I read an article about them trying to position themselves against Micky D's and the like as a healthy fast food option.

[prog.livejournal.com]

I LOVE their goat cheese sammiches. They come with no tomatoes by default. O heaven. One of life's little annoyances as a tomato-hater is that I always have to ask to hold the tomatoes on everything, and people often forget I asked because what kind of mutant eats a sandwich without tomatoes in?.

Plus, goat cheese, num num.

[tahnan.livejournal.com]

I'm surprised to learn that the echoing of children there is worse than the general din of the Diesel. But then, I wear headphones even in the Diesel, and less because I need music than because I need to drown out background noise.

But the real question is: how late are they open?

[prog.livejournal.com]

Only until like 8.

I actually like the din and crowds at the Diesel. Not all the time, but it's a significant draw during those times I feel the need to go work there for a while. Who knows why, since I'm generally an introvert... (well, it's not like I like to actually interact with the crowds.)

In retrospect the music has something to do with it too. O'Naturals doesn't have a soundtrack (Carberry's did; I can't guess at why they dropped it), so when a single person (of any size) is being loud, that's all you hear. This really irritates me.

[in-parentheses.livejournal.com]

I think their sandwiches are fantastic, but it's silly to think of them as a fast-food competitor, because a) $6 a sandwich can't compete with $3 a sandwich, even if the $6 sandwich is way more than twice as good, b) they're fast, but they aren't *that* fast, and c) no drive-through. They're more a very good sandwich place where you can be pretty sure that what you're eating isn't damaging the environment in some egregious way. I even eat meat there!