“’On with the dance, let the joy be unconfined,’ is my motto, whether there’s any dance to dance or any joy to unconfined.”

Mark Twain

Obviously Mark Twain never saw me dance; otherwise he’d have been more inclined to cancel the dance and rethink the benefits of confinement. But we’re talking about joy here and not my lack of aptitude in the dance department, although admittedly my dancing does bring joy, or at least laughter, to those unfortunate enough to have witnessed it.

But back to joy. Although we are lucky on Bainbridge Island to have two full-service supermarkets, I still find myself doing most of my important shopping at Walt’s Market in Lynwood Center. I have always felt that going to Safeway or T&C just to purchase a loaf of bread or a gallon of eggs and a carton of milk or a head of carrots is a little like burning down the barn in order to roast the pig.

Part of it is the convenience factor, (in the interest of full disclosure, I live only a mile from Walt’s), but a lot of it is that I just like visiting Walt and his mom Rhea, particularly on an early Saturday morning latte run. Shopping at Walt’s is a little like going shopping in your grandmother’s kitchen, but with a much better selection, better soups and fewer doilies.

Walt’s serves its excellent lattes brewed from Ometepe coffee poured into Sweetheart brand hotcups with the swirling brown coffee bean motif. There is a cozy seating area in the back of the store complete with a functioning stove. On good-weather days, there is also outdoor bench seating. Pleasant Beach and the Estuary are a short stroll away for those who favor mobile latte consumption. But the best seating option is standing inside Walt’s large walk-in beer and wine cold room with a steaming latte in one hand and a warm pastry in the other.

With its extensive selection of wine and beer, the cold room at Walt’s offers an excellent browsing opportunity and a great spot from which to celebrate the repeal of Prohibition every day. And if all that weren’t enough, Walt sells honest-to-God donuts and copies of the New York Times on the same counter.

For the truly adventurous, the shelf behind the checkout counter also carries an assortment of Ding-Dongs, Yoo-Hoos and other garish Hostess cupcake products in colors unfit to appear on the posterior of a baboon. (My favorite is the hot pink Snowball with the chocolate cake and white filling that looks and tastes like liquefied Styrofoam packing peanuts.) As an additional bonus, a sign on Walt’s front door indicates that he now carries bait. One of these days I’ll find out what kind of bait we’re talking about and whether it goes better with white or red wine.

Half a score of years ago I admitted my fondness for shopping at Walt’s by comparing it to the kind of store one might find in Mayberry, hometown of Andy Griffith and Barney Fife. (I’m sure I don’t need to tell you who plays the Aunt Bea role under this analogy.) In the most-recent municipal election in Seattle, a losing candidate got into political heat by calling Seattle a “Mayberry with high-rises.” That difference in perceptions about the value of small town ambiance tells you all you need to know about the difference between Seattle and BI. I’m happy to report that Walt’s move up a couple of hundred feet from its old location at Lynwood Center brought with it the same small-town feel, just with an expanded menu and range of services that you used to have to travel all the way to Mount Pilot or even Raleigh to experience. Walt’s score:

Taste: 4.75

Ambiance: 5.0

Service: 5.1

Total Overall Espresso Experience Rating: 14.85

A very good, if somewhat complex, score. Next week we’ll search out a new and exciting espresso experience to report on. Until then, we’ll ponder on what we might be missing when we try to figure out if William James was right when he said that the art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook.

Tom Tyner of Bainbridge Island writes a weekly humor column for this newspaper. This is from his “Classics Files” written years ago.