Coffee Conscious — Restaurant in Berkeley

TL;DR: good coffee, nice pastries, but there's that one rude barista who doesn't understand how to be a good neighbor to the other businesses on the street or how to be considerate of the customer's needs. A real shame.

PROS: very nice coffee, knowledgeable baristas. I'm not much of a pastry eater, but the couple of times I've tried one, it was quite good- especially the Yam Rolls. Most of the baristas are very cool people.

CONS: just the one, really, but it's kinda pissing me off. So, I've been a semi-regular at this cafe for a few months, went there maybe twice a week. I work online in cafes, and I make a point of buying a couple drinks each time and tip to contribute. I never had anyone at this shop give me a sense that I'd overstayed my welcome. They claimed to not have a bathroom, and told me I should walk down the street to the market. Since I don't feel right using a business's bathroom without buying something, and since Coffee Conscious only has pastries to eat anyways, I'd generally pick up lunch. Suddenly today, I was told not to eat outside food in the shop.

I was a barista for years, and I get that this is generally a no-no. But being that they were sending people to another business to use the bathroom, I figured it was reasonable to grab something. In the course of the conversation about this, the barista said something about the shop being small, basically implying that they're not cool with "campers." Fine, I get that too. But here's the thing- there was NOBODY else sitting when I arrived, and the cafe wasn't full in the whole time I was there. Also, there are some regulars who come in every day and take up basically half of the place. I like regulars, and I like supporting local businesses. But when they're all but throwing folks out on the one hand, and shmoozing others who are going to stay just as long on the other hand, it seems a little hypocritical.

Also hypocritical- they DO have a bathroom, and I've seen friends of the baristas using it. They've got to set the rules, I understand that, but when they make people needing a bathroom another business's problem (and BTW, it's a medical issue for some), it's not right for them to also complain about you supporting that business. And if you want to keep people moving through, don't selectively enforce that. Support local businesses- all of them. I'll be at Royal...

I was looking for a place to get a snack and ended up here. This place has been here for years and I remember going another time at least 7 years ago. They have been serving the vegan Donut Farm donuts for years too - which are still great and probably the best thing about this place.

Service was super indifferent. I thought the shirt designs were cool, but they were out of stock even though the display was still up.

I ordered the vegan orange donut on a plate for here and was given it in some tissue instead. No mention that they don’t have plates available or anything, it was just handed over in the tissue.

When I went to sit down, I noticed the service area is horrible if you are trying to hotspot from your phone. On top of it, there was a giant cobweb in the corner of the store right in front of me. It would take weeks of not cleaning to get a cobweb of that size.

I won’t be...

So I wanted to try Donut Farm🍩. Turns out this is a coffee shop☕️ that gets these donuts delivered to their shop from Donut Farm. Regardless, I got to try Donut Farm, which was great. It’s way to expensive though. 6 donuts for $16?!?😱😡😱 That’s more than $2 for one donut!!! You’d think vegan would be cheaper. Also, all these donuts have the same bottoms. The only difference is the frosting on top. The green matcha one is really gross🤮. But the early Grey lavender one is so good🤤!!! I’d say three of them were good (lavender, coconut, salted caramel). The other 3 were ok (orange, Mexican hot chocolate, and matcha). What I love about the donuts is that they have a really good crunch and it is SO AMAZING. They seem More crumbly than normal donuts and less sweet tasting. I really like them overall. I’d give them a 3.7 stars if that...