Grind Coffee & Nosh — Restaurant in Biloxi

THE RESTAURANT Conveniently located just south of Interstate 10 on Cedar Lake Road, The Grind Coffee & Nosh menu features several bakery items, specialty coffee drinks, and sandwiches. The interior is spacious and very well lit, with several large windows. The parking lot is small, with only about five or six parking spaces, though there also is a drive-thru window for to-go orders.

////////// MY ORDER • BLT (classic bacon, lettuce, and tomato with mayo on sourdough) with avocado • Red-skin potato salad (included as an optional side with all sandwich orders) • Medium mocha frappe with peppermint syrup

////////// THE SANDWICH Honestly, if I hadn't been hungry and purchased a sandwich for lunch, this rating would be a four-star rating. The sandwich tasted good, but was nowhere near what I was expecting. First and foremost, the staff was extremely accommodating with my request for avocado, despite it not being included with the sandwich. The sandwich was made panini style, which is not a form I'm accustomed to when eating a BLT. The bacon was limp, likely pre-packaged. The lettuce was some sort of leaf lettuce, which further took away from the lack of crispiness, and the avocado was sliced almost see-through thin. It was also oddly difficult to tell whether the bread was really sourdough. It didn't have a very distinct flavor.

////////// THE POTATO SALAD There's not a lot you can do wrong when making potato salad, and The Grind Coffee & Nosh delivers with a great red-skin potato salad, made the only way I'll eat it, with mustard. It was tangy and a bit sweet and a perfect consistency.

////////// THE FRAPPE For some reason, The Grind Coffee & Nosh does not make frappes with nonfat milk. I've seen this policy before at other restaurants, but that is usually because those restaurants don't make frappes from scratch. Rather, they use a premade frozen frappe mixture. However, The Grind Coffee & Nosh, from what I observed, does make their frappes from scratch, right down to grinding the coffee beans. Therefore, I don't really understand why they couldn't make it with nonfat milk, even after explaining to me that they can make their hot and iced coffee drinks with it.

That said, the frappe I got tasted very good. It was full flavored and just enough peppermint flavor to mix well with the coffee flavor and not overpower it like what you get at Starbucks. The frappe was also blended to a very creamy consistency that almost makes it taste as though it's blended with whipped cream.

////////// CONCLUSION SANDWICH: ★★☆☆☆ POTATO SALAD: ★★★★★ FRAPPE: ★★★★☆ SERVICE: ★★★★★ ATMOSPHERE: ★★★★★

////////// WOULD I COME BACK? Probably. I'd still like to try some of their bakery items and maybe a...

So I show up to this place. Whenever I am in a new town, I make it my business to support a new business - ALWAYS! So I bring my computer with me to catch up on work. And out of respect I ask the young lady at the counter if I could use my computer. As sweet as can be, she says "sure". Another guy, who I am assuming is the owner says: "We don't allow that, sorry." And they literally had like only 4 people in there. I'm like hmm, that strange. Okay, I'm like, cool. So I still wanted to try the Iced Dulce de Leche, so I get in the drive thru and order. Because I love to give people the benefit of the doubt! But something in my Spirit - while I am in the line - tells me to look up the pictures on Yelp. And low and behold: a White young man, sure enough is on his computer!! When I got to the window, I told another man he could cancel the order because clearly they had policies for some and different policies for others. So my warning to Black folks is tread lightly when visiting this place, or go to another establishment all together! I was going to go to PJ's, but I'd already drove 15 minutes to this place, so I wasn't in the mood to drive further. Take your business elsewhere! Because this is 2023, and we should be patronizing places we are CELEBRATED and not TOLERATED!

Update: I drove down to McDonald's, purchased something and used my computer there. A place where the presence of a Black person minding their on a computer in the lobby wouldn't cause any harm. :)

And Black folks I will say this again: Stop giving these establishments your money that DO NOT TRULY CARE...

My husband and I stopped here for the first time a couple weeks ago and ordered through the drive thru. I ordered a blended white mocha, my husband ordered a coffee with cream, and we shared a Ruben. Our order was taken by someone who stepped outside since there was a long line, which I appreciate. She was friendly, however when we reached the window we were asked for our name. When we told her no one took down our name, she seemed upset with us.

We let this go, as they were busy, but then we tried our drinks. My husband’s coffee was very weak, but at least tasted like coffee. My blended white mocha tasted like a bad shake from a gas station. I didn’t taste any espresso and we ultimately threw it away because it was too sweet for either of us. The Ruben was ok, but not worth $10 by any means. I would have expected it be significantly more full for that price.

Overall we’ll probably give it another chance as it’s the only coffee shop somewhat nearby, but it won’t be the highlight of our day. There are plenty of constructive reviews here that the owners could utilize to improve their service and attention to quality of beverages, so I’m not sure why that hasn’t been done yet. That’s my overall recommendation - for the owners, not potential customers - please read these reviews and consider making some adjustments to improve the experience of customers...