Last week I visited a new coffee shop in Carlsbad called It's A Grind. The coffee shop faces the ocean, has plenty of tables and bar seating, and is clean.
I wrote a review of It's A Grind for Yelp, and now I regret what I wrote. Not in a bad way, but in a good way. I think I shortchanged the review--all for what is good about the business.
*****
In San Francisco the funkier a place is, the more likely it is to have a following. Sometimes staff at these places can get away with bloody murder because their place is the most popular place to be--I'm distinctly remembering The Grove in Hayes Valley (and it was only moderately funky) and the Berry street location of Philz Coffee in China Basin. San Franciscans learn quickly to judge a book by its used and abused cover, and not for its comforts.
When I visited Its A Grind last Friday, the first thing that struck me is how clean and new the place is. It had been a while since I had experienced clean and new, even in new restaurants in San Francisco. Most restaurants there are the lucky inheritance of someone else going under. But Its A Grind looked like it had been built new from the foundation. And it was CLEAN. What gives?
As an added bonus to a new cafe, the place was staffed with friendly people. The coffee was inventive, the cafe well-designed, and the people didn't care if this was the hip place to be--they were going to treat me like they wanted to make me happy.
I classified this sum total in my review as "characterless," as though in order to be a good cafe or restaurant the patrons had to experience the equivalent of Seinfeld's "No soup for you." I forgot what character was for a moment--to treat others as you would like to be treated--in exchange for being at a place that made me comfortable instead of making me compete.
You can bet that will get changed.
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