Succinct way of putting it

"...the incorrigible nature of American culture, a culture slowly refining itself through espresso but still in love with the drive-through." (copyright 2009 New York Times News Service)

This quote is from a column by David Brooks, a regular columnist with The New York Times, (Will America look like Amsterdam? Should it?) and sounds a bit like a reviewer comment about Driven to Espresso. Alas, it is not.

Here is the full paragraph from which that came, to give you the context: "The folks at Pew [Research Center] asked one other interesting question: Would you rather live in a community with a McDonald's or a Starbucks? McDonald's won, of course, but by a surprisingly small margin: 43 percent to 35 percent. And that, too, captures the incorrigible nature of American culture, a culture slowly refining itself through espresso but still in love with the drive-through."

Basically, the column uses a Pew research study to comment that America's dream to live in the suburbs is still alive, despite assumptions of some urban planners.