September 30, 2026
• 3 min read
Written up in October 2026. Dates are when I actually built it.
Two days, one weekend project, and a personal rule that it still had to be done properly. Here’s the Capitol Hill Coffee Guide, 42 commits and 233 test cases later.
I wrote a design spec and implementation plan before any code. Sounds slow. It’s why the rest wasn’t.
Treat the Places API like a budget, not a service Shop data comes from Google Places, which bills per call.
Read more →September 30, 2026
• Project
A hand-curated guide to independent coffee shops: filterable browsing, a map, detail pages, a visit “passport” and taste-based recommendations. Built and deployed in about 48 hours: 42 commits and 233 test cases.
Architecture Next.js, TypeScript, standalone build. The bundle is built and validated locally, then synced to a VPS behind nginx and systemd, so the server only needs Node. Data. Curated, researched shop data compiled into the bundle and validated by schema on every deploy, merged with live Google Places data at request time.
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