Coffee Cat: Hot Chocolate (& Santa Barbara International Film Fest)

Santa Barbara International Film Festival 2013

Oops, I forgot to publish this post last night! And here I was beginning to believe I could keep to a schedule. 

Last weekend, a friend invited me to go down to Santa Barbara Inter- national Film Festival. She thought it might be fun to hang out by the red carpet and watch everyone arrive for the last event, "Outstanding Performer of the Year Award." Jennifer Lawrence of The Hunger Games fame received the award. I felt like getting out, so I took my friend up on her invite.

Santa Barbara is only about an hour or so away from us, so it's easy to do a day-trip. We arrived in the early afternoon and spent the day window-shopping on State Street. In Anthropologie, we found a stack of Mr. Boddington's Penguin Classics and we both had a hard time walking out with buying one of the novels. (Because it would be silly to buy clothes at a clothing store.) I also talked my friend into going out for coffee, so I could write a new review.

Hot chocolate at Coffee Cat, Santa Barbara

We stopped at a funky cafe called Coffee Cat. Inside we were greeted with bright red and lime green walls. There was art deco-styled paintings hanging from the wall. At almost every table, we saw students bent over textbooks or typing frantically on sticker-covered laptops. The air taste of procrastination and school-induced stress. Naturally, I felt right at home.

At the coffee bar, I ordered a small Hot Chocolate with whipped cream for $2.60 and my friend order a Chocolate Raspberry Mocha. The chatty barista served both our drinks in slender glass mugs, so we both felt somewhat fancy while we caffeinated. Despite all odds, we managed snag a comfy booth near one of the windows.

After we settled into our little corner, we tried our drinks. I must say, Coffee Cat's Hot Chocolate is top-notch. My drink had a very robust chocolate taste that left my taste buds begging for more. It had a bit of a texture, which was unexpected, though while usually I prefer my cocoas on the creamier side, the texture didn't detract from the overall taste. At $2.60, the price was very reasonable and I have no complaints about the presentation. I'd definitely order it again.

Yum! Perfectly delish!

Also my friend wanted me to mention that her Chocolate Raspberry Mocha was also quite good and she would get it again. So coffee-drinkers who lurk this blog, there's a recommendation for you!

Around 6:30pm, we headed over to the Arlington Theatre where the red carpet had already been laid out. I'm not the hugest fan of Jennifer Lawrence, so seeing her in-person wasn't any life-alterating moment for me, but I enjoyed chatting with the people around us while we waited for the big names to start arriving. One person in front of us knew a lot about the event and shared some fun facts about the film fest with us. A lot of people brought copies of The Hunger Games for Jennifer Lawrence to sign and I was surprised to see how many elementary-aged kids were there with their parents.

Jennifer Lawrence signing copies of The Hunger Games.

While many folks assured me the crowd was large for the Santa Barbara International Film Fest, it felt small to me because the only other red carpet event I had experienced was the premiere of Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End at Disneyland. (I was kinda madly in love with both Johnny Depp and Keira Knightley in high school, so sue me.) When Lawrence arrived, my friend and I could actually see her because there were only two people standing in front of us. It was a much more intimate experience than expected.

Presentation: ★★★★★
Yummy taste: ★★★★★
Price: ★★★★★