The Coffeehouse Chronicles

Neighborhood: Clarksville

Address/Phone: 1206 Parkway at Lamar/476-1829

Hours: Mon-Fri, 7am-midnight; Sat, 8am-midnight; Sun, 8am-11pm

Munchables: Deep menu of quick fare

Standard Cup o' Joe: $1.50 (free refills)

Bean Source: What's Brewing (San Antonio)

Crowd: Post-Greenbelt runners, Clarksville locals

Soundtrack: Satellite salsa station

Bonus Points: Dangerous desserts, no portion control

The Room:

Definitely more neighborhood restaurant than coffeehouse, the Austin Java Company has become a high-traffic Clarksville mainstay with a clattering kitchen specializing in huge servings of basic short-order fare. The expansive menu board covers an entire wall -- rendered in tiny type, no less -- and features pastas, sandwiches, salads, and other well-executed quick-stop dishes. If you squint and the light's just right, you can make out their coffee offerings.

The room itself is a bit on the stark side, with matching table sets and a short strip of banquette seating. It's got the studied ramshackle feeling of being in mid-renovation, with one bare wooden wall and brash ochre texture offset by deep purplish blues. The best feature, though, is the metallic moonscape finish of the front section and kitchen spaces -- craters and trails of thick stucco covered in heavy silver-and-gold paint. After a few of their powerful Vietnamese coffee concoctions (equal parts slow-drip French roast and sweetened condensed milk), the peaks and valleys take on multiple lives of their own. If the cafe-induced flashbacks get too overwhelming, an all-weather back patio provides sunny refuge and fresh air for the occasional hyperventilator.

The biggest tempation, though, is the well-stocked pastry case that tempts all but the chronically sucro-phobic. Foot-tall chocolate caramel cakes sit next to bowls full of cobbler and wide dishes of creamy flan. Even the cookies -- a bit on the cakey side, but HUGE -- are served in slab form. Even though the seating doesn't exactly encourage the long lazy linger, who can sit still after so many carbos and coffees?