Mason Jar Coffee Roasters

If you've read my earliest posts on this blog, you'll know that one of our goals/challenges was finding some replacements for great bread, great granola, and great coffee so that our mornings could continue to achieve the apex of taste, refinement, and profound gustatory satisfaction we had enjoyed in the Adirondacks thanks to the Dogwood Bread Company of Wadhams!, NY.

The solution: we found a way to bake crusty, no-knead artisan bread in a 7-quart dutch oven; make our own delicious granola; and I started roasting my own coffee beans. There is some great artisan bread available regionally - coffee and granola, too - but it largely emanates from Logan at the Crumb Brothers bakery. Logan is far away by my standards, and though amazing, I wouldn't consider the Crumb Brothers an Ogden local.

Also, roasting coffee in a variety of semi-failing popcorn poppers at 5AM in 10-degree weather twice a week all winter long (I do it in the garage to contain the massive amount of smoke it produces) wears a little thin after awhile. Fortunately for me, I have discovered Mason Jar Coffee Roasters right in here in Ogden (well, Washington Terrace, really).

Tom, the owner/roaster is a great guy. He's got a great staff. The place was established in August 2012, and at the time of writing, they're still developing some ambiance - but way in the plus column, the place is spacious, friendly, plenty of seating, sofas, a scrabble game, and my 3-year-old feels pretty at home cruising around in there.

They have a drive-up window, and they sell jars of amazing, freshly roasted coffee. Mason Jar also features loose-leaf tea (another very hard to find item in Ogden - Union Station Fermentation has some, too). Mason Jar usually has a nice plate of donuts and fritters on the counter if you need a snack. But the main feature for me is the shiny coffee roaster in the back of the main room, surrounded by all the lovely sacks of coffee...

I'm a black coffee drinker, but if you like a latte, make sure to ask for the Cinnamon Honey Soy Latte - using real honey and real cinnamon. Somehow, it magically almost tastes like chocolate. And if you want to skip the magic and go straight for the real thing, the house hot-chocolate is soul-satisfying and worth the trip. They're not open Sundays, but they're open daily from 5:30AM-7:00PM (double-check for current hours).

In the Neighborhood

I live in South Ogden City. Used to be called Burch Creek. The general area (confirmed by Craigslist) is called "Ogden-Clearfield" which is a Metropolitan Statistical Area. Since 80% of the people in Utah live in a 100-mile stretch along Interstate 15, it's pretty much a bunch cities squashed together cheek-by-jowl. If you live north of Ogden, you might live in Harrisville, or North Ogden. If you live south of Ogden, you might live in Roy or Layton.

If you live in Ogden, you might (like me) live in South Ogden City. My mail says Ogden. South Ogden City is like a municipal peninsula (say that three times fast) wedged into the southerly portion of Ogden. You might also live in Washington Terrace. As a result of the jigsaw city effect, no one seems to mention actual neighborhoods in Ogden. I've heard of two: Jefferson Historical District and East Bench. (I recently heard one home owner in East Bench refer to it as "Harrison Heights." East Bench makes more sense.) East Bench is a bench on the mountains at the eastern extreme of Ogden. It's entirely east of Harrison Avenue north of Weber State University.

But that's it. People ask where I live, and I can only give prosaic street coordinates. So I made up some more neighborhoods. Maybe they'll catch on. I'm designating the area just west of Weber State University that comprises parts of Ogden and South Ogden City in the neighborhood behind and to the north of McKay Dee Medical Center "West Bench." If you go downhill on Bel Mar, you'll notice that it is a distinct neighborhood.

Below that, continuing downhill along the south side of 36th Street, you'll find yourself in the more blue-collar neighborhood, which I will call the Lower West Bench. There's a weird sort of middling OK neighborhood just north of there along either side of Jefferson that I'm going to call NoLoWeBe - North of Lower West Bench (in honor of the best neighborhood acronym ever "DUMBO" - Down Under Manhattan Bridge Overpass) and in the tradition of NoLa, NoHo, and Nolita.

Of course, the area on the west side of Harrison down 25th Street can be the Lower East Bench. I'll look for historical corrections and other suggestions in the comments. Let's carve up this town into desirable neighborhoods and call them our own!

UPDATE: I started a collaborative interactive google map of the neighborhoods in Ogden.

I sketched in some of the neighborhoods. Add your own!!

UPDATE #2: Even better! Open Street Map has all of the old neighborhood addition names right on it - many of which are pretty fun: Nelson Park, Prospect Heights, Lakeview, etc.; though I must say, that my little corner of Ogden remains somewhat ambiguous, so I will still refer to it as "Jefferson Meadows."

About Blogden Utah

For me, blogs have turned out to be quests: a quest for appropriate baby names, a quest for cheap, earthwise diapering, a quest for harmonious arts management.

Lately, I relocated to Ogden, UT with my family to take a job at Weber State University. I'm not sure what the big Quest is, but a few little ones have popped up: looking for local food, local culture, and good things to do with the family. If I find anything good, I'll write about it (or the search for it) here, at Blogden, UT, where the Cloud meets the sky...(oh, that is sooooo cheesy, but how could I pass it up?)