A slushie and an oil change

Fat City blogger Owen Morris posted a story this morning about the difficulty in finding a free cup of coffee that was really, you know, free.

One place where I can always count on a free cup of java — it’s not always good, but it is free — is at one of those oil change operations, like Jiffy Lube, Speedy Lube, Valvoline and so on. There’s usually a small lobby with a coffee machine, a daily paper and a few magazines. And coffee is very important if you’ve arrived shortly after dawn to take advantage of the “Early Bird Special.”

But even competition for the oil change business is intense these days, which may be the reason that the Valvoline Instant Oil Change location on East 23rd Street not only had a pot of coffee brewing, it had two slushie machines in operation.

One of the managers told me that customers love the icy concoction, but he wasn’t sure what that day’s flavors were in each of the machines. “I’m pretty sure the the green stuff is lime,” he said. “I’m not sure about the white one.”

I suppose I could have tasted it to see for myself, but I don’t particularly like slushies and I absolutely won’t taste one before 8 a.m. I mean, I have my standards.

 The free coffee, on the other hand, was very good.