Great Coffee! (When Open - Just Make Sure Place IS Open Before Driving Some Distance To Get There)
SITREP
Walking down the main drag (actually in fact, "Main St.) of the bustling little hamlet of Sutter Creek, you see one Wine Bar right after another Wine Bar.
But if you look among those wine bars, and other nearby cafes and Antique shops, you will find Sina's Backroads Café nestled among them - it is a welcome reprieve from inebriation when you need that solid kick in the pants.
https://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/sinas-backroads-cafe-sutter-creek-2?select=8BiVKejNlJaUCTOCoQ0P8A&userid=3mNz5nQFTIBQm0oU5mBR0w
THE SETUP
This was a good spot I enjoyed a few times while spending the extended weekend of Sept 6-9 in Amador County with lots of friends from all over the state.
Besides coffee, it is also setup for great breakfast and lunch fare. It also was the perfect spot to drink a tasty roasted brew while getting much needed wifi'ing & writing done while chilling out, but also while juicing up my energy reserves for more event-madness in the evening.
https://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/sinas-backroads-cafe-sutter-creek-2?select=RYrGJejU2LHEizkYyb0RCg&userid=3mNz5nQFTIBQm0oU5mBR0w
THE COFFEE
It has delicious roasts: on the times I succeeded here, I found there was always at least two caffeinated, and one decaf version of roasted coffee on rotation in their café: something that one of my companions appreciated in this day and age of indie cafes that seem to forgo decaffeinated options.
https://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/sinas-backroads-cafe-sutter-creek-2?select=-OP00YYoWr32n_6IhIYjxA&userid=3mNz5nQFTIBQm0oU5mBR0w
On one occasion, however, the shop was not open during posted hours during our weekend excursion. Well, I guess that was just my bad timing, and I didn't think anything of it ...that was, however, until it happened AGAIN, which leads me to the next section....
CATERING SCHEDULE - MY ISSUE
The café staff also have a very bustling catering business, which is great, because I think it's important to diversify and not have "all your eggs in one basket".
Now, I am not familiar with their catering from direct patronage or contact, but I am INdirectly: when I came back to Amador County on a subsequent weekend morning/early afternoon of Saturday Oct 13 (while up for a wedding at Iron Hub Winery in Plymouth beforehand), I was bragging to fellow celebrants about how cool this coffee stop was (and to be fair, it still is).
And so since we had a wee bit o' time before the wedding, we made a side-trek to specifically come here, since it's almost impossible to find indie-level quality coffee anywhere else while in transit throughout Amador County [unless you go to the Jackson Rancheria Casino, or further up past Plymouth in the other direction on HWY 49 towards Placerville - YES, that's how hard it is to find GOOD (commercially available) COFFEE in Amador County!]
The only problem is when we arrived - at 1:00 pm - during normal business hours as posted on the door and on Yelp, the entire place was shut down:
https://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/sinas-backroads-cafe-sutter-creek-2?select=l8on3--dm8ni07WPDPPbqA&userid=3mNz5nQFTIBQm0oU5mBR0w
= apparently when they have a catering gig, one is only *noticed* by a paper sign on the window of the door; and,
= we spent 30 minutes in round-trip driving and too late to head anywhere else before the wedding.
PRO-TIP
Hopefully the coffee shop's staffing won't be impacted too much by the catering side. So to my fellow patrons, just a friendly FYI: check ahead for scheduling snafus.
[ADDENDUM: By the way, I just found out from the friendly owner Jon H. that they have a Facebook page where the cafe schedule and other metrics are updated!]
THE LOWDOWN
If you can make the connection here - because you're already in Sutter Creek - grab some great coffee. read more