Ty @ the cup – baristas
I plan my coffee around when the good baristas are working at my favorite coffee shops. And if I walk in and see a not-so-good barista behind the counter, I will either leave or order a tea instead. I don’t want to waste my morning sipping a $3 cup of bitter ass coffee.
One stand-out – Ty at The Cup. He usually makes a great coffee, and I think he can make the best coffee in Boulder (doesn’t ALWAYS, but he’s your best shot) BUT he doesn’t work on Sunday or Monday-so I avoid the joint entirely on those days.
Downtown shop poll results
We forgot to post this when it appeared in April. Downtown Boulder Magazine posted the results of a poll (page 37 of the pdf) about the best downtown coffee shop (presumably from this list of 18 shops). (We posted during the poll’s run).
Here are the results (actual screenshot from the magazine pdf is below the fold, but we had the full results emailed to us), and I have to say I’m scratching my head on a couple of these:
1. The Cup (18%)
2. The Unseen Bean (15%)
3. Laughing Goat (10%)
4. Great Awakening (8%)
5. Tee and Cakes (7.5%)
6. Amante (7%)
7. Trident (6%)
I’m good with the top-3, but Great Awakening? Are you kidding? And Saxy’s or Sidney’s didn’t make the list? And while I like Tee and Cakes, Spruce Confections is roughly 346 times better. One of three explanations are possible: 1) all of 14 people responded; 2) Readers of Downtown Boulder mag are not representative of actual coffee shop denizens; 3) ballot-box stuffing. Either way, more grist for the mill that public polls like this are next to useless, which is exactly what one of our commenters noted on the post announcing the poll.
We found the quiet shop you’ve been looking for
And it was right downtown the whole time. It’s been there for about a year now. Ku Cha House of Tea is on 13th between Pearl and Spruce and get this — IT DOESN’T HAVE WIRELESS!!! Ok, some might consider this sacrilegious in Boulder, but I know many of you are going to consider it a godsend antidote to the laptop libraries sprouting up all over town in otherwise fine shops such as Folsom St., The Cup and Saxy’s.
Ku Cha is a combo retail tea shop — selling around a hundred different loose-leaf teas and steepware — and a ‘traditional’ tea house with a sublimely relaxing atmosphere. No laptops in sight, just a soothing lounge where you can write in your little notebook, read the newspaper, or just stare at the ceiling without being bombarded by the obnoxiously loud noise music of the Goat. The quiet, laptop-free atmosphere also means the Ku Cha is generally empty. Good for people seeking refuge, bad for the shop. Helpfully they are doing well enough to stay in business because Boulder certainly needs some quiet spots, especially since the demise of Tea Spot.
Another shop on the blocks
The venerable Tea Spot has a sign up on the cash register announcing their demise. Sad. The location is a bit awkward. You’d think the ice rink plaza would get more foot traffic but it’s just enough out of the way to be relatively unvisited. The Tea Spot sign says that the owners are doing well in their wholesaling business so that’s where they’ll focus their efforts from here forward, the end of the lease being a good time for them to pull away from the retail shop. New owners could jump in on favorable lease terms (seems like business leases are going ridiculously cheap in Boulder right now) and an already-completed buildout.
So where does that leave the Boulder coffee shop scene?
- Amante for sale
- Playgrounds for sale (and closed until somebody buys it)
- Organica folded about 6-9 months ago
- Sidney’s just sold
- Tea Spot closing
Who is doing well? The obvious ones (meaning they’re always full):
- Amante NoBo
- Folsom St. Coffee
- Laughing Goat
- Logan’s (full all day though?)
- The Cup
- Saxy’s (but see recent post decrying the “success“)
- Starbucks (hahaha) … actually, only the Hill location seems to be consistently busy
- Vic’s (Ideal)
on machines and customer service
Radda is the newish Italian place abutting Ideal to the west. It took over the space from that pseudo-Mexican place that had the rockin tamales night on Mondays. It’s not a space for working but is a pretty damn good place for eating. Food is excellent and cheap for the quality and ambiance. But we’re here to talk about the coffee, aren’t we? The spouse and I were eating Sunday brunch at the bar, sitting within feet of the espresso boy. He made two excellent coffees for us and I was thinking something like, “That Illy must be damn good coffee because that’s one of the best cappuccinos I’ve had in Boulder.” But then we got a second. Later I found out we were both thinking the same thing: ‘bitter and sour.’ And: ‘why was the coffee so good the first time and so bad the second, just minutes after the first, made by the same bushy-haired import?’
When I asked around I got the answer: cheap machine = inconsistent coffee. When the coffee company (Illy) gives you the machine maybe you should say no and actually spend some dough on something worth having in your joint.
Which brings me to customer service. Why bother having a coffee shop if you’re not nice? Ah, nevermind. One of us just talked about it a coupla days ago so why beat a dead horse?
The Cup still hasn’t figured out customer service….
We’ve written before about those who own The Cup (category check) and who live behind the counter and who aren’t really people people and who should hire people to do all their public facing. We’ve made this recommendation before. Yes we have. But one of us was once again put off a few days ago by the … well, let’s just say aggressive, clueless and inappropriate … reaction (s)he got to an innocent, tepid question. The Cup serves great coffee (we mention Conscious Coffees so much it’s getting boring, but nobody around the Denver metro area comes close to touching their quality) and has knock-out baristas (that’s Mark for you — nobody serves his coffee without his intent training). But the surly, grumpy tude from the owners is gettin’ old.
Compare to Trish at Sidney’s, whom every coffee shop owner should be emulating. That girl oughta be running for office and kissin’ babies every day.
worst customer service ever
The Cup has delicious coffee. But here’s what happened: I get a latte with spoiled rotten milk. nasty. I take it back up to the owner who was working the counter.
me “this latte is bad”
him: “ok, we will make you a new one”
me: “no, I mean your milk is spoiled”
him: “i SAID we will make you a new one”
wow, I believe if you have that bad of an attitude you should not open a coffee shop. I also saw him send a customer back to his table to scrounge for an additional $.04 instead of comping him the difference. very awkward and horrible customer service. im boycotting them, plus their decor and layout is very ill-advised
How a review for one shop becomes a review for another….
See people, it’s called customer service for crisssakes! During a break in a little conference across the street I showed up at Peaberry Coffee (NW corner of Arapahoe and 28th) with the intention of getting some food and writing a review. But instead I waited in line. And waited. And waited. No, the line wasn’t long. In fact, I was next in line the entire time I was there. But even with three people working behind the counter they still couldn’t even acknowledge my presence in five minutes. And since I get a little grumpy when I’m really hungry, five minutes was about all I could stand, so I left. So, Peaberry coffee? Not sure. Food? No idea. Work environment? Looked ok, but I guess I wouldn’t really know. For some people, taking care of the customer just comes naturally. I mean, it is common sense, isn’t it? If you’re in the business of serving people then you maybe should make serving them your top priority?
So I strolled on around the corner to Brewing Market (attached to McGuckins on Folsom between Arapahoe and Canyon) and got served immediately. The coffee is decent. I purposefully ordered a very dry cap to be able to assess the espresso. Started out medium and slightly bitter, got slightly more bitter as time went on but mellowed with the incorporation of the milk. Chocolate croissant was the standard boring chocolate croissant that must be made in some huge manufacturing facility (compare with the Kitchen’s). Work environment is a little weird because of the nature of the shop which is to sell beans and coffee-related chatchtke and kitsch just as much as fresh coffee and pastries, but usable. I’d say Brewing Market is an acceptable substitute to Folsom St when the latter fills up.
Speaking of customer service, we’re hearing some pretty bad grumblings about The Cup, and one of the people offended twice actually has a login to this blog but hasn’t aired his/her complaints yet. So let this be a gentle reminder: if you’re a grumpy person by nature, stay off the cash register and away from the serving line. Hire somebody with a winning smile to take your place. Don’t piss off your customers because you’re in a bad mood. It’s not good for business. Just ask Vic’s.
and then an argument ensued….
there was a beer meeting last night at the West End. one thing led to another. coffee came up. Vic’s came up. this author stood her/his (this is an anon blog after all) ground and bashed Vic’s vociferously. it became a two-on-two, with two calling Vic’s coffee bitter and sour and nasty and the other two raving about it, saying it was by far the best in town. But see, those other two so-and-so’s don’t have login access (yet). So I get the last word. And the last word is that Conscious Coffees (served at The Cup and Sidney’s and The Kitchen and probably some other joints) makes the Vic’s-served Allegro taste like black play-doh. So there. But I’m happy to register publicly that Vic’s has it’s strong supporters. But I would be remiss in not reminding our loyal readers that Vic’s screwed up bad and we haven’t been back since. And the Ideal Vic’s doesn’t turn on the wireless until 11am to discourage people like, well, us!, from working there in the morning.
Despite the acrimony over Vic’s, consensus was among the four that Saxy’s wins the reader’s choice award. Maybe not the best coffee (according to the Vic’s lovers), but definitely all around the best place in town. Now if they’d only lower the prices a tidge….
the newest of the new
The Cup is now open in Allison’s old space on the north side of Pearl between 16th and 15th (just shy of the mall). Big, big improvement. Interior is redone in fresher way, plants and art choices kind of liven the place up a bit. Food selections are broader and the coffee served is my fave — Conscious Coffees out of Breckenridge. Allison’s coffee was pretty good but CC is the best around. Prices are about the same (read: high). The back room isn’t open yet but promises to be soon and I’m guessing it’s going to be seriously upgraded from Allison’s thrift-store-shopping-spree look.
The downside of Cup is the decrease in seating options and the seating layout. There are a couple of tall tables that would comfortably fit one worker bee but most tables in the shop are four-top. Meaning you feel like an asshole taking up the whole damn thing for two hours with your little laptop. Wouldn’t be so much of an issue if the place was dead but so far it’s been consistently busy any time I’ve been in. (It did quiet down later in the afternoon today, though.) There’s a long high table that would function as a decent work space but 1- no plugs and 2- it’s a high-traffic area when the garage door is open. The overall is that it just doesn’t feel like a workspace coffee haus in the way that the Goat or Vic’s do. Still, ambiance is a hell of a lot better than either of those two (Goat makes me feel like I’m in a vampire-themed rave that does coffee shop by day and brings out the poppers and meth at night) even if the working conditions aren’t ideal.
The two newest shops in town, The Cup and Saxy’s, are stepping it up in the coffee quality and ambiance departments and that’s a good thing. And Cup has a bit of an edge: nothing on the coffee menu over $4 except for a large mocha.
