Let me begin by saying that coffee is a hard thing to review. Everybody has different tastes, especially when it comes to coffee. And most peoples tastes are, sorry America, based on generations of Dunkins or Folgers and now Starbucks shit that really does coffee a disservice.
There is, believe it or not, actually a way to prepare coffee according to established standards that the best cafe's in the world follow, check it out on coffeegeek.com.
Having been a loyal patron to the Atomic Cafe for years I can vouch for them in saying that Atomic follows these standards from their fair trade green coffee selections, to their roasting process, to the way they grind and pull shots, and even to the way the steam milk and pour drinks. Even the storage of both the espresso blends and drip coffee beans are in line with these standards. If you don't like the coffee there are a few reasons for why this may be.
1. You are used to shitty coffee and your taste buds can't make the change. I'm sorry.
2. Perhaps the beans were old or had a bad bean in the batch, which can actually throw off the drink dramatically.
3. Maybe you had a new barista who didn't really know what they were doing, it's ok, they will learn and it will be better next time.
If you enjoy espresso and coffee that tastes like burnt toast dropped in hot water there is always Trevi and What's Brewing Coffee across the street to check out.
As far as food goes, Atomic has a decent selection of food to choose from. They don't pride themselves in serving gourmet foods neither do they serve crap, if you want a tasty sandwich you are in luck! Let me remind everyone though that the Atomic Cafe is one of the highest volume cafe's I've been in. I live in Seattle right now and haven't experienced rushes and masses of people that I've seen in the Atomic Cafe. With that being said, the food menu is set up to provide tasty light meals to go with your coffee, or drink of choice. Because of the volumes of people that come through the place it's impossible to do any more than what they currently have to serve, so if you don't like the selection I'm sorry, there are just too many people coming through there to change anything. if you don't mind making the trip The Atomic in Marblehead serves a bit of a broader food selection. Check it out.
To conclude, can reviewers please stop reviewing the clientele!! I mean for heaven's sake, there is an Art School literally behind the Atomic, and the Atomic is also a gallery space for artists to hang their work. So of course there are going to be "artsy, and trendy" kids and college kids coming in and out of the Atomic. Responding to one of the reviews here, there ARE two Art-school grads that work there who are not pretentious and condescending but probably some of the nicest people I know. If you feel looked down upon I'm sorry, but take that up with the clientele, don't bitch about it here.
Four stars for good coffee, good service, and good food that exceeds how good it should be when measured up to the volume of people that place sees. read more