My Cafe Buzz — Restaurant in Bellefonte

I was in town for a friends wedding, in fact I was running the music so I was busy trying to get final preparations made and I needed a little place to work for an hour or two. The era of lockdowns has made this aspect of public life, a shop to work a little at, nearly impossible, the reaction of a lot of businesses is that they are forced to literally beg for business and reject their customers in one whole swoop by not providing a "place" to rest and do work. This especially effects those of us that travel on occasion or even more often. This little coffee shop was just lovely, while I don't ever have super fancy coffee (i.e. the "quad long shot medium in a large cup, half calf, double cupped, no sleeve, salted caramel mocha latte, with 2 pumps of vanilla, substitute 2 pumps of white chocolate mocha for mocha, and substitute 2 pumps of hazelnut for toffee nut half whole milk and half breve, with no whipped cream, extra hot, extra foam extra caramel drizzle, extra salt, add a scoop of vanilla bean powder, with light ice well stirred." Yes I said it in one breath) I do have drip and I like it with real heavy cream and no sugar. Since I was on a trip I had conveniently stopped by the super market and grabbed a bottle of cream just in case I ran across a shop that has none. Most of the time you don't want to tell a shop that their stock is incomplete, most shops don't carry cream because Americans are paranoid of anything with fat in it (perhaps that's why history seems to be repeating itself, no brain fat....... hmmm). Well, I have a brain, and I LOVE cream in my coffee. But since I needed to sit down and work I asked the lovely people behind the counter if they had cream, they said they didn't know; so I asked if they would allow me to put some cream in the coffee since I had some in the car, they said that was fine. WONDERFUL!!! No whining or complaining they just allowed me to have my coffee just the way I wanted it. I sat down on one of the sweet little tables and worked for a couple of hours and focused on music. They staff were wonderful, calm, very sweet, enjoyed the company of all their customers and even talked a little history about the town and the area. This is how a coffee shop should be, friendly, warm, inviting, not desperate to make sales and shove you out the door. This is the true pub atmosphere with goodness overflowing that people look for in a small town. There are knick·knack's everywhere for sale and little jars of tasty goodness. Although I can't have a lot of carbohydrates there were plenty to be had, tasty treats of bagels and mild pastries of several types. There are muffins and croissant, and Ice cream and all the things that you think of in a traditional little shop and more. And it all came in a wonderful building that obviously has some classic history to it. I strongly recommend this wonderful shop. I was there for only a couple of hours and if I ever go back to Bellafonte I'll certainly stop by again.

Oh, and they have...

Some food items good, but ownership is terrible. They do not to critiques of items like the gray matcha or pretzels, the mocha is from syrup instead of real chocolate, the cappuccinos are NOT cappuccinos at all, they are mostly milk, and while the service from employees is good, the effort from the boss, Heather, to improve the location’s food and service has been subpar.

It is also come to my attention as my friend was working there until recently that the boss does not pay tips to her employees in full, and splits them. This is extremely illegal and employee treatment is terrible from Heather - excessive critiques on simple things like cleaning when customers and herself have had no complaints about similar quality before, guilt tripping younger employees about their requests about scheduling, pay, and more, and generally the boss is the problem at this location.

Other than that, the ambiance is wonderful, lots of nice goods from OTHER people that keep this place in business. Most of the things that are actually good aren’t from the coffee shop itself. The coffee isn’t bad but the main attraction is the shelves of goodies in the front of the store.

To claims that I am lying and harassing the owner - I could’ve done a lot worse, actually harassed and berated your social media, lipped about you to customers, etc. I even said good things about the front of house - and this is what you say? I gave you 5 stars for atmosphere, 3 for service, and 4 for food, and yet you say I give you straight bad ratings? Check out the one star reviews you have my friend.

And to claims I’m lying about any of this, she just admitted I know a former employee, who knows how everything is made in store. Plus, there are several reviews about the gray matcha INCLUDING pictures, so that’s not a lie either.

If you’d like to be ignorant and cause your own demise be my guest!

Oh, and by the way - she wasn’t fired. You know that. She quit because you weren’t paying her what you said you would!

We have plenty of nasty REAL texts from you we can post if you’d like that. But I don’t...

I rarely write reviews but the poor service was unnerving so here we are. First things first, the space was very aesthetic and had a cool vibe and we enjoyed that but that was all.

My friend and I asked about the matcha latte if it was a sweet drink. The two women behind the counters were so snarky and rude when confirming that it was not sweet. It was so bizarre to give this much attitude for a normal question, but maybe they’re having a bad day  — I let it go and proceeded to order. (Side note, I didn’t realize til the end but she didn’t ask me what size I wanted and gave automatically gave/charged me for a large without me realizing it. Never ever had this happened before but whatever, it’s wasn’t about the money because the experience gets worse.)

Got the drinks. Could tell the matcha quality wasn’t great because of the color. Then I tasted it and holy moly it was so sweet. I give them another benefit of doubt. Since this place lets you replace drinks you weren’t satisfied with (thank you), I asked to switch it to a regular latte instead. You would think they would be more attentive and try a little harder since you were dissatisfied with the first drink. NOPE — they gave me more attitude and I even over heard them say “just give them a regular iced coffee”. The disrespect is insane.

Listen, I love small businesses which is one of the reason why I came here but I’m also fair. I understand people have hard days but it was one bad experience after another and it became inexcusable. It looks like the owners of this small business reads the reviews and it sounds like this was not an isolated incident of bad/uncomfortable service, so I hope maybe some more hospitality training with your staff or hire kinder people.

Overall, had very bad experience with service/staff/drinks but I’m rooting for this place...