Analog Coffee

TLDR: Food was fine, service was systemically awful from top to bottom.

The setup of this building is a bit strange, so I’m going to leave this review for both ‘businesses’ inside since the experience occurred throughout the entire space.

I’ve lived around the block from here for some time and whenever I mention that to friends, I’m constantly asked if I like B-Sides. Finally decided to give it a try on a day when I was readjusting to time zones after traveling. Boy was that a mistake!

For what it’s worth, the breakfast sandwich I got was fine. Above average in terms of the quality of ingredients and taste, but not ‘knock-your-socks-off’ great by any means. It was a bagged English muffin ran through a toaster with a single slice of thin ham and a normal amount of egg, mushrooms, and daikon.

The issue was the service. The aforementioned layout is confusing if you come in through B-Sides because it’s only the pickup counter, so you have to go to the Analog side to order. The girl who took my order seemed fine, she repeated it back to me and had me come around the side to pay — she entered the price, spun the Square tablet with the classic Tip Menu around and she walked away. I paid, chose no receipt, and walked to the B-Sides counter.

At that counter, I asked if I could have my sandwich to go and they asked if it was a “mushroom breakfast sandwich”, I said it was “mushroom and ham” and they said they didn’t get that order. I was the only person there and it was the only order, so I told them it must be a mistake. They then asked for my order number, which I said I wasn’t given an order number because I didn’t print a receipt, but if they charged me wrong, I’m happy to pay the difference.

Another employee stepped in and said they must have rung it up wrong and again asked me for my order number. I said I don’t have an order number and she said that they only had one order anyway. She directed me back to the payment counter where I had to deal with a FOURTH member of the team. This guy was the absolute worst, he made a snarky comment about me not picking up my order number which I was more than happy to challenge him about. I told him that the cashier didn’t give me one to which he said, “she put it right here.” So I asked, “as someone who wasn’t even here, can you actually say with 100% confidence that she both placed a number there and told me about it?” He was more than happy to lie through his teeth and say “yes.” A younger me probably would have gotten violent, but restraint is a virtue.

I grabbed my sandwich and was about to leave when I was intercepted by the manager, Danny. To his credit, Danny empathized with my situation and apologized appropriately. He even offered me a refund, which I did accept. I hope this can be a teaching moment for Danny to train the rest of the staff to be better in the future. My only annoyance about the refund is that the tip didn’t get refunded and nobody in that place deserved a tip. Where you work is a choice, if you choose to work in the service industry, great service should be your priority.

Great place to work. Actually good espresso, decent pour overs, crazy good merch (who is your designer????), and milk is always steamed to perfection. Pretty busy every time I’ve been there though, so count on a line/extra time to look for parking.

Excellent egg (with ham and/or mushroom) sando, coffee, and overall atmosphere. I definitely got here during a lull- shortly after, there was a line out the door. And now I know why.

Room for ten or so laptops along the wall and windows, with a few small tables in the mix.