Review - The Last Drop

1300 Pine Street
215.893.9262
Yelp, Google Maps
M - F: 7 am - 10 pm, S - S:  8 am - 9 pm
Free Wi-fi, some tables, broken outlets

The Last Drop

[Editor's note: this review was written by a guest blogger, Miriam.  I apologize for the unoriginal photograph.  Miriam doesn't own a camera so I instead used an image I found online.]

Hidden in a small corner on 13th and Pine, rests a mosaic café, dimly lit filled with somber music.  As I scurried into the café to shelter myself from the stabbing cold wind, I was kindly greeted by the sweet aroma of coffee.  I scanned the room quickly, to find few tables and chairs, a bar and few stools peppered by young adults furiously typing away.  Gripping onto my laptop, I searched for an open table and a nearby outlet to plant myself on for the next hour.  Nature called, and before I too was going to start furiously typing away, I needed to find the bathroom.  I could not see any sign that obviously screamed out “BATHROOM” but instead saw a sign pointing downstairs that read “ATM”. My gut told me that relief would be found downstairs. I was surprised to find that there were more tables and lots of outlets on the bottom floor…but it was deserted. As I waited for the man who screamed “I’ll be right out!” from the toilet, I had plenty of time to examine this ground floor.  Standing there alone, I got chills down my back.  Though I knew people were upstairs, and someone was down here (though he was buy and probably would not be able to come to the rescue), it felt like the basement of an abandoned home.  The carpet I was standing on felt grimy, dirty and I had the urge to wipe my feet from standing on it.  Graffiti decorates the walls of the ground floor and also the bathroom.  I made sure not to come into direct contact with anything.

I scurried upstairs and got in line to finally get a chance to judge the quality of the coffee served.  I asked the cashier what flavors the cupcakes were, he said he did not know.  I asked him what type of coffee they brewed, and his answer was “Phoenix”.  I asked him if they didn’t brew La Colombe (since bags are sold on location) in which he responds that only the espresso is La Colombe.  He must have noticed that I wasn’t too happy with this answer, so he quickly reassured me that he thinks Phoenix is under the same company.

I took the first sip of coffee and quickly realized that it was weak and had been probably sitting inside the percolator since 7 am.  I felt like I was drinking black water.  I planted myself under the brightest bulb I could find making sure I had a nearby outlet.  As I decided whether to sit on the wooden chair, or the cushioned bench, I noticed that the cushion on the bench looked like it had seen better days… for obvious reasons. The outlet didn’t work and the longer I sat there, the dimmer the room seemed to get.  Local musicians were sitting next to me chit chatting about business, sipping on some drinks and all I could smell was the stench of cigarettes.  As a conclusion, the one good thing about it is that it’s open late and you can get a refill of coffee for $1.  If you’re into dark rooms, depressing music, terrible coffee and graffiti filled bathrooms; then The Last Drop is for you. But if you have any respect for the beauty and simplicity of coffee and seek for an environment that is inviting and warm then this place will definitely not have you drinking their stuff until the last drop.

I give it 1.5 beans out of five.  As always, comment below!

Review - La Colombe Torrefaction (Rittenhouse)

130 S. 19th Street (Between Walnut and Sansom Street)
215.563.0860
Website, Twitter, Yelp, Google Maps
M - F: 7 am - 7 pm, S - S: 8 am - 7 pm
No Wi-Fi, lots of tables (though crowded), few outlets

La Colombe Torrefaction

If you ask anybody who's been in Philadelphia for an extended period of time, they'll tell you that the gold standard for coffee in Philly is La Colombe.  There have been countless reviews boldly proclaiming La Colombe as the undisputed king of coffee in the city.  In fact, many other establishments in the city also use La Colombe coffee (see, e.g., La Citadelle, Capogiro, Philly's Cafe, Sugar Philly, etc).  I've frequently visited this particular location (they have several locations in New York City and also a new location opening up in Center City), but thought I'd visit it again to make a proper review.


So I visited La Colombe this past Friday, which had absolutely gorgeous weather.  It was perhaps the perfect day to visit a café, so I must admit, I was in a very pleasant disposition even before I got there.  I usually just get regular coffee there, which is their Corsica blend - a dark roast from Central/South America.  In my opinion, it's one of the best coffees in the City of Philadelphia.  Even if you normally add tons of sugar and cream to your coffee, you'll be just fine drinking this coffee black.  On this particular visit, I decided to try their Café Americano (priced at $1.75).  For their espressos, La Colombe uses their Nizza blend, which is a medium roast from several South American countries and Ethiopia.  I actually think their Nizza blend is their best coffee, and in fact if you visit La Colombe, you'll notice a lot of people ordering Americanos.  This review seems to agree and ranks the Nizza at 90 out of 100.  I have to say, it was probably one of the best Americano's I've ever had.  My only complaint was that I think the water they added was wayyyyy too hot and was undrinkable for about 5-10 minutes.  La Colombe definitely lives up to its reputation for having one of the best, if not the best, coffee in the city.


As a café, La Colombe has a great atmosphere right next to Rittenhouse Square.  They have a beautiful decor inside and a great urban café feel.  They also have huge windows all over the café, which lets in a lot of natural light.  Perhaps because of its location, the clientele is very diverse, which makes the experience much more pleasant.  You'll find people of all ages, races, and professions (students, professionals, hipsters, artists, senior citizens, etc).


Unfortunately, what makes the café so great may also be its downside.  Because La Colombe is so great, it's super crowded.  Though they have 26 tables, it's often hard to find a table.  Even if you just want to get a coffee to go, you'll most likely have to wait a line of considerable length.  However, for such a popular café, La Colombe is somehow able to balance efficiency/speed with customer service.  You certainly won't get the same level of attention as a smaller café might give you, but these baristas are certainly not like the ones at Starbucks.    On the other hand, for how quickly the baristas work, they are quite friendly.


Moreover, while La Colombe would be a great place to read a book or chat with a friend, it's probably not that great of a place to study.  Though they have 26 tables, the tables are rather small.  They have no wi-fi, and only 2 outlets.  Furthermore, from what I can tell, the tables with outlets are ALWAYS occupied by computer squatters.  In the alternative, you can also grab a cup of coffee to go and take a stroll in Rittenhouse Park or read on one of the benches.  Especially when the weather is 65 degrees in the middle of February, there are very few things more gratifying.


Bottom line - Excellent coffee.  Great place to hang out or read but not to do any hardcore studying.  I can't wait until their new location opens this Spring. 4/5 "beans."  As always, please share your opinions about this place!

Review - Elixr

207 S. 15th Street (around Walnut Street)
Website, Twitter, Yelp, Google Maps
M - F: 6 am - 10 pm, S - S: 7 am - 10 pm
Free but terrible Wi-Fi, few tables (fairly crowded), few outlets

Elixr

I was very excited to hear about the opening of a new café in the heart of Center City.  Elixr, which just opened a few weeks ago, prides itself in being true adherents to coffee made "the right way. "  Evan Inatome, the owner of of Elixr, is the brother-in-law of Eagles player Winston Justice. In fact, Inatome claims to donate 20% of all proceeds from Elixr to various charities he's working on with Justice.


Elixr clearly takes great pride in its coffee, so let's talk about that first.  All their coffee is "direct trade," which is a form of "fair trade" coffee  As I'm sure you know, fair trade coffee is all the rage these days especially among certain groups. "Direct trade" is a bit different because direct trade aims to get the coffee directly from the farmers.  I believe their coffee supplier is PT's Coffee. Their coffee may seem a bit on the expensive side ($2.25), but it's definitely worth it.  Elixr will brew-to-order among the 4 brews available that day.  Quite impressively, the baristas will hand-brew each order.  And you know they're doing it the right way - they'll place the cup on a scale and watch as they pour the hot water over the coffee, to ensure they use the exact optimal amount of water.  They're espresso offerings are also quite impressive as they use a La Marzocco espresso machine, widely regarded as the one of the best espresso machine.  When I visited, I tried their Brazilian brew, which had a round body, sweet acidity, and roasted peanut aroma.  As you would expect, it was brewed perfectly.   The baristas are quite friendly and willing to answer all questions.  However, I did notice that because the café is quite popular and crowded, the baristas somewhat rush you.  I have to give them credit though.   Considering the fact that they hand-brew each order, they're as efficient as once could be.  In case you're interested, they also have a number of other hot and cold drinks (including bottled Coca-Cola) and and sandwiches from Marathon Grill.


The atmosphere is fairly pleasant.  It takes on a post-modern approach - very simplistic, clean, yet elegant and sophisticated.  The café is well-lit and has great decor.  However, perhaps the appeal of the café is it's own downfall.  The café is very crowded, perhaps bolstered by the fact that it has limited seating.  It boasts 2 big "picnic tables," 6 seats the counter-top and 2 smaller comfortable chairs.  While there are a fair number of power outlets dispersed among the café, it's probably impossible to find a seat to study unless you come early and just "camp-out" all day.  Moreover, because of its popularity and over-crowdedness, the café feels less and less like a local independent coffee-shop, but instead more and more like a well-run and well-oiled chain café.    Even if you are able to secure a study spot, I wouldn't recommend it.  The café itself is quite small and the the noise within the café doesn't disperse very well as a white background noise (which I personally find very conducive to studying).  Rather, it sounds like a busy marketplace....moreover, if you plan on doing any work online, you'll probably run into significant problems trying to connect to its free Wi-Fi.  It t...ook me about 10 minutes to finally connect, only to find that the internet was extremely slow (1.46 mbps, which is about the speed of a 3G internet connection).  It might be be worth it to try to connect to Max Brenner's Wi-Fi...Another complaint I have is their rather poor climate control.  Every time the door opens, a huge cold draft rushes in, chilling the entire café.  If you're lucky enough to be a woman, apparently their bathroom also has lotion, which is a nice gesture.  I'm very disappointed however, that they would assume that men wouldn't want the same luxury!


Bottom-line - they are clearly coffee experts.  If you consider yourself to be a coffee snob, this is probably one of the few places in Center City where you can find this level of quality.  The ambiance has potential to be amazing.  But until they fix their over-crowding and internet problem, I wouldn't recommend studying there.   On the other hand, this is probably the only café I know in the city that opens until 10 pm...  I give it 4.5/5 "beans" (with huge potential for upward mobility).  Go check it out and let me know your thoughts!


***Update - for an excellent explanation of the "pour-over" method of brewing coffee, which is used by Elixr, please refer to this article.

Review - Saxbys Coffee (40th & Locust)

4000 Locust Street
215.386.1832
Website, Facebook, Twitter, Yelp, Google Maps
M - R: 6:30 am - 10:45 pm, F: 6:30 am - 9:45 pm, Sat: 7 am - 7:45 pm, Sun: 7 am - 10:45 pm
Free Wifi, Lots of Tables (though often extremely crowded), A few outlets

Saxbys Coffee (40th & Locust)

Some of my readers have asked me why I named this blog Philly Cacophony.  I think I can finally give you a satisfactory answer.  Until now, the cafés I've reviewed ranged from satisfactory to excellent.  But this Saxbys Coffee is the paradigm example of a bad café in Philadelphia - and that's not an exaggeration.  I should note, that I'm generally not a fan of chain cafés and so I'll stick to visiting and reviewing independent local cafés.  However, considering that Saxbys is the 4th best café on Penn campus, and generally fairly popular, I decided that a Philly Cacophony review was strongly needed.


As previously insinuated, Saxbys is a franchise chain based in Pennsylvania.  This particular location is on the Western edge of the University of Pennsylvania's campus and right next to Penn Dental School.  Though this particular café wasn't always Saxbys (it was Bucks County Coffee Shop before), it's been on Penn campus longer than most nearby cafés (e.g., Lovers and Madmen, Starbucks on 34th & Chestnut).  Consequently, Saxbys remains a popular spot for graduate students and undergraduate students alike to study, hang out, or grab a bite to eat.


So I walked into Saxbys, ordered a coffee, and sat down at a table.  The first thing I noticed is that the café  is generally dirty and not well-kept.  Tables are all over the place and chairs are askew.  But my biggest pet peeve - it's just dirty.  There are napkins, food crumbs, and miscellaneous trash just left all over the place by previous customers.  I agree, people should learn to clean up after themselves, but for the past hour I've been sitting here, I haven't see a Saxbys staff member clean up the used napkins on the table next to mine!  And I absolutely hate when I spot a nice table - only to find it covered with crumbs!  I went to the counter where the sugars and creams so that I could find some napkins and water to clean the table up myself.  Only to find NO NAPKINS.  I had to ask the staff member behind the counter for some napkins and water to clean up after my own table.  Unbelievable!  Just out of curiosity, I looked up the health department records for this location.  A search for "Saxby's Coffee" on Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture's Website, reveals that during its latest inspection on December 2, 2009, there were 11 health violations.  Some of them seem harmless and from what I hear, most restaurants are in violation.  But there was one comment by the inspector that was particular disturbing:

"Visible physical evidence of rodent activity observed in the front prep area. Mouse feces were observed on the countertop beneath the microwave & toaster. Mouse feces also observed in seams of the countertop. Mouse feces observed on floors along wallbase behind grease trap & ice maker."

That's just straight up gross.  Sure, maybe I should give Saxbys the benefit of the doubt and perhaps they cleaned up since December 2009.  But given by observing the rather lax attitude towards cleanliness, I would seriously be surprised if this café is now sanitary.  After being thoroughly deterred from ordering any food from Saxbys, I decided to just get a cup of coffee.  I ordered a small cup ($1.67) and chose to go with their coffee of the day which was a Columbia roast (or was it a blend?  I'm a bit confused because the cashier had absolutely no idea what I was asking...).  A couple sips and I couldn't finish the coffee.  It tasted extremely watered-down and tasted as if they had brewed the coffee several hours ago.  In fact, for the past 2 hours I've been here, I've been watching the baristas to see if they would re-brew the coffee, but they haven't.  It's just been sitting there.... I suppose I could've added sugar and cream to my coffee, but honestly I didn't really feel like it.


Enough about the food and coffee.  As for the ambiance - it actually wouldn't be half-bad if they kept this place tidy!  Unfortunately, it's extremely messy.  Moreover, it's fairly crowded, despite the fact that they have about 28 tables.  If you're lucky enough to find a table, it might be a suitable place to chat or hang out with a friend.  If you're looking to study, I would say Saxbys is probably one of the worst places to study.  It's darkly lit, extremely crowded, and loud.  With the exception of 2 big tables, all the other tables are too small to study.  In addition, there's only about 4 outlets for the 28 tables!  Plus the outlets are probably the worst outlets ever.  For some reason, my laptop plug won't stay into the outlet because the outlet is too loose!  At least they have free wi-fi....(hint: if you're a Penn student, you should choose to connect to Air Penn Net instead of Saxby's internet).  I would say the only thing going for Saxbys at this point, is its late hours.  But if you're looking for an alternative late night study spot on Penn campus, there are many other viable alternatives.


Bottom line: Coffee sucks, it's dirty, and it's a terrible study spot.  At least it stays open late, but honestly, it's not worth it.  I give it 1/5 "bean."  And that's probably one bean too many.  Trust me when I say you'd rather study at Lovers and Madmen, Starbucks, or Penn Bookstore.  The only redeeming part of my visit here is that I only spent $1.67 and not a penny more....Please feel free to share your thoughts on this place.  

Reivew - Philly's Café

725 Walnut Street
215.625.3666
Facebook, Google Maps
M - F: 7 am - 5 pm, Sat: 9 am - 3 pm, Sun: Closed
Free Wifi, Lots of Outlets, Lots of Tables

Philly's Café

Philly's Café's, located in the Washington Square District, is only 4 months old and a relatively new establishment.  For those of you who are interested, this place was formerly Danny's Cafe and before that, it was Tuscany Cafe.  I must admit, it was a difficult to research this café.  I couldn't find it on Yelp, Google Maps, or anywhere really.  I was able to finally find their Facebook page however, which is actually quite detailed (and you gotta love the long name of the Facebook page: "Philly's Cafe, previously Tuscany Cafe & Danny's Cafe).  I hadn't heard of anything about Philly's Cafe before I visited the place, so I was able to review the café tabula rasa.


Let me first start with the positives.  First, the staff is extremely friendly and definitely has a family atmosphere.  You can just see their genuineness and congeniality just by the way they interact with each other.  The owner, Kim, is very gregarious and you can see her frequently chatting with the customers.  Second, the diversity of their food menu is simply staggering.  They boast 29 distinct food options including breakfast foods, sandwiches (incluiding Asian sandwiches), wraps, paninis, salads and soups.  I didn't try any of them and instead elected to try their homemade bread pudding, which was baked fresh on the premise by one of the friendly staff, who actually used to own her own bakery.  It was quite delicious, even though they nuked it in a microwave prior to serving it to me.  In terms of drinks, they boast the usual selection: coffees, espressos, smoothies, teas, and a few specialty teas.  They serve La Colombe coffee, which in my opinion is the best coffee I've tasted in Philadelphia, so they made a good choice there!  It's very reasonably priced at $1.50!  And finally a café who's pricing scheme FINALLY makes sense.  Their espresso costs $1.60 and their Café Americano costs the same price.  I never understood WHY most cafés will charge double for their Americano as compared to their espresso.  If someone knows the answer, I'd love to hear it in the comments, but isn't an Americano simply an espresso diluted with hot water?  The one problem with their coffee, however, is that it tasted like it was brewed several hours ago.... I also had the chance to taste their Vietnamese Coffee, which costs $3.25.  I'm a sucker for condensed milk, so I thought it was delicious.  But then again, I think it's somewhat hard to mess up Vietnamese Coffee because the sweetness of the condensed milk just overpowers every other taste.


Next, Philly's Café makes a great study spot!  I count 13 tables, and probably more than half of them have a readily available outlet.  There's free wi-fi, with pretty good speed: 4.98 Mbps download speed (according to speedtest.net).  The wireless network is unprotected however, which makes me a bit more weary though...  It's fairly well-lit, good climate control, and soft background music...great place to study.  Just take note of their hours.  They close fairly early....


Now we can move on to what I think definitely needs improvement.  You walk in and the atmosphere, culture, and ambiance you'd expect from a café in Center City just isn't there.  The walls are more or less bare, except for 2 flat-screen TV's.  You walk in and it feels more like a corner deli or perhaps a quick to-go café you'd find in the basement of a college library (e.g., Mark's Café in the basement of Van Pelt Library).  Overall, the café has a drab and dreary feel to it... It's a great studying location, and probably a suitable place to chat with a friend, but don't expect the ambiance of a true gourmet café.  This may sound super harsh, but the Starbucks just don't the corner offers a more coffeeshop-like atmosphere.  But who knows?  This establishment is fairly new and the owner definitely looks like she's willing to improve the place.  They have a good start with coffee and food.  They just need to build upon the culture.


Bottom line: very friendly staff, descent and reasonably priced coffee, good place to study (minus the hours), but absolutely no coffeeshop culture.  3/5 "beans."  I'd love to hear what you guys think.  Please share your feedback in the comments section!

Review - Nook Bakery & Coffee Bar

15 S. 20th Street (Between Chestnut and Market Streets)
215.496.9033
Website, Twitter, Yelp, Google Maps
M - F: 7 am - 5:30 pm, Sat: 8 am - 5:30 pm, Sun: Closed
Free Wifi, 1 Outlet, 7 Small Tables (and other seating)

Nook Bakery & Coffee Bar

At the recommendation of one of the readers of Philly Cacophony, my next destination was this relatively new (open just last July) coffee shop, located near Rittenhouse Square.  After hearing about it from my friend and reading about in on Yelp, I went with rather high expectations.  I must say, those expectations we're completely met as Nook is easily now on my top-5 list of best cafés in  Center City.  I was most impressed by their coffee and food.  They use coffee from One Village Coffee, which is a coffee roaster based in Pennsylvania that hand-roasts their fair-trade coffee.  Nook offers two different coffee options.  For $1.75, you can get coffee made from a French Press and then stored in a thermos.  In the alternative, you can shell out $0.50 more for coffee hand-brewed to order (you'll need to wait 5 minutes).  It's a bit more expensive, but if you enjoy high-quality coffee, it's definitely worth it.  They use a different blend every day.  I ordered the French Press coffee, with the blend of the day, which was the "Nor'Easter Blend," a blend of heavy Indonesian and lighter South American  coffee roasted dark.  The coffee was brewed perfectly and simply put, quite amazing.  Smelling the aroma of the perfectly-brewed coffee reminded me why I like visiting cafés so much.  Nothing beats sipping on a cup of delicious coffee and enjoying the culture of coffee shops in the middle of a city - it's a great break from the hustle-and-bustle of a busy urban area.  But I digress.  I also ordered the quiche ($5.50), upon the recommendation of several Yelp reviewers.  The quiche, along with all the other food assortments (cakes, pastries, muffins, macaroni and cheese, chili, etc) all looked quite tasty.  Nook makes all the food on premise, fresh each day.  The owners clearly put a heavy emphasis on the details of their establishment.  The quiche looked quite appetizing behind the glass door and was indeed quite tasty.  I was, however, a bit disappointed that they microwaved the quiche before serving it to me.


The service was impeccable.    The owners, Michael Caro and Edna Cruz, are both extremely friendly.  Throughout my time there, I observed many customers (presumably loyal customers) come in, order their usual, and have extended conversations with the owners.  If you peek through the back doors, you might be able to observe them baking up a new cake.


As for the environment, it's well-lit and well-decorated.  As many cafés do, they exhibit a number of paintings from local artists for sale.  They have soft-music background music, which was a bit too eclectic for my taste, but it was soft enough for me to drown out with my headphones.  I was under the impression that Nook would have limited seating, but I was able to easily find a spot among the 7 smaller tables.  In addition, there are a few sofas and 7 stools at an elevated counter. There's also free wi-fi as long as you make a purchase.  The only thing that could make it difficult to study at, is the fact that there's only 1 outlet.  During busier times, I would expect a race to get those outlets.  As an extra bonus, Nook seems to be a popular destination for many of the nearby business and law people.  If you're into doing some spontaneous networking, Nook may be the place for you.


Overall, this is a great café.  I would visit it frequently if it stayed open beyond 5:30 pm and had more outlets. But even so, its amazing coffee and friendly baristas make you wonder why anyone would patronize the Dunkin' Donuts down the street. Bottom line - great coffee, friendly service, OK place to study.  A solid 4.5/5 stars.  Check it out if you get the chance and share your thoughts!