Touching piece, but there's no inherent reason why you can't have social bonding experiences over good coffee as opposed to shitty coffee. I've had my fair share of long/deep chats at "hipster third-wave coffee shops." The author is feeling a nice pang of nostalgia, and that's totally OK, but it doesn't constitute a "case" for bad coffee.

Sometimes, convenience (how late is the store open?) and ambiance (is it a nice place to sit and chat/read?) (and price) matter more than the quality of the coffee. But if you can have convenience and ambiance, why not also have a high quality drink?