Oh, by the way, since our coffee machine at work was broken (it was fixed this morning, phew) I decided to pay the surly coffee cart guy a visit. And he totally does have the full-on Muslim facial hair…and he was crazy friendly and even remembered me, “I haven’t seen you in a while” despite my only having gone there maybe 10 times in two years. I think the only reason I'm memorable is because no one in their right mind would order cart coffee black, no milk or sugar, a.k.a. "regaluh."
The more I think about it, there were sometimes two guys in this cart and it was the younger trainee fellow who was curt and emotionless (not that I truly blame him—I don’t have a customer service personality either). This guy was the boss, it seemed. So, now all the coffee guys within one block of my office are cordial and I’m even more suspicious of their motives.