As I left, I heard someone else coming in saying "Well THIS isn't a friendly user experience" and that sums it up for me.
Inside, there's a pay-before-you-enter system with a literal roped-off area accessible only through purchase, supposedly there to prevent COVID incidents but without any enforcement of mask policies. I assume they did diligent cleanup efforts after guests left, though I didn't see any in the hour that I was present. It became clear, as others have said in reviews, that buying a drink without food gets you the cold shoulder, so I can only assume the owner was generating maximally profitable turnover with their policies.
While inside, I looked around at the ambience, trying to make sense of it. The interior is decorated in fake candle art (for sale) over a large fireplace with LIVE LAUGH LOVE merch (for sale). Tic tac toe boards (for sale) adorn a glass coffee table. Every inch of the store has been outfitted with something to buy, seemingly without theme. Even the bathroom has been overtaken with precise, calculated cuteness, as if they outfitted the entire place at random using Google searches of rural suburban swag. The overall vibe is "Please spend your money and leave", which I was happy to do.
After exiting the one-way exit door, I got past the eternally abandoned ring of uncomfortable outdoor seating, realized I'd forgotten my bag at table, and re entered the line side of the shop to retrieve it. After waiting in line ten minutes, I noticed they'd taken down the customer barrier and decided to walk around to retrieve my bag. Immediately an angry employee came around and said "You've been coming in and out of here without paying, you need to leave, get your things and get out of here" as if I was running a scam. I pointed to the bag on the ground and said "I've left my bag here and am returning to pick it up".
Ordinarily this would be the moment where a person would say "Oh! Okay, no problem, I see that you're doing a reasonable thing". The worker, still mid power trip, replied "Well you can't come in and out of here without paying, you need to leave" and doubled down on their threatening attitude. It was 100 degrees outside and I still felt relief leaving. I have never had a more hostile coffee shop experience and I'm unsurprised by the number of negative reviews.
If you want a good experience, save your time and money and go to the Spoonful of Sugar next door -- it's cute, it's genuinely friendly, the coffee tastes better, the decorations are cuter, the conversations are nicer, there's no freaky hodgepodge of LIVE LAUGH LOVE merch for sale in every corner, and no one is playing mall cop with the riff raff. read more