Clear Flour Coffee Bar — Restaurant in Brookline

I have always loved clear flour bakery and was an early supporter of the coffee bar. It was always the best coffee in town, I'd even bring people visiting Boston to try it. Back then, the baristas were all great at making coffee and were absolutely lovely and welcoming no matter what.

Unfortunately, all of this has changed in the last couple of months. There is now a crew of men who all seem like they do not want to be there. They are impatient, rude when asked questions, sometimes they even roll their eyes. The coffee's quality has dropped SIGNIFICANTLY, which makes it not worth the price anymore. Worryingly, one worker seems very biased against Muslims or brown people, he regularly gets mad at a family members for the way their name is spelled and is always hostile and antisocial with us and then immediately nice to White patrons. It is a shame, he ruins the atmosphere.

It is really sad because this used to be a place worth 5-stars but has taken a turn for the worse lately. I hope owners address these issues and hire staff who are good at crafting coffee and who are more helpful...

I went into the coffee bar next to the Clear Flour bakery because they started selling the Orange Chignon only in the coffee bar and not in the bakery like they used to. I picked up their Jambon Beurre to try and really liked the sandwich. It has a good amount of ham and butter and not too salty. I had also tried the ham and cheese sandwich on a different day. It's smaller than the ham and butter version but has a good amount of ham. However, it was way too salty. At $15, it's not as good a value as the other.

I did notice there was a weight difference between the two ham and cheese sandwiches that I bought. I weighed them just because I had the digital scale on the counter. There was about 1.4 oz difference between the 2 sandwiches. Need better quality control?

I wish they would continue to sell the Orange Chignon at the bakery as well. This way I don't have to get in 2 lines just to get my regular weekly...

Clear Flour Coffee Bar makes our favorite sandwiches in the Boston area—flavorful, fresh, and of course, the bread is amazing. My partner also loves the cake slices, which are portioned more reasonably for a single person than the whole tea cake from next door. Love the pantry items and knickknacks on sale as well.

Coffee, though, has been a miss. I’ve had good lattes/flat whites here but have also had bitter and watery ones. Iced lattes are harder to get wrong, but even that has been a miss at times. At $6 a bev with oat milk, the inconsistency makes it not worth getting the coffee. We’ve bought the beans (Tiny Arms) before, and they were good, so it’s likely the inconsistency between baristas. Our go-to is Broadsheet Coffee Roasters in Cambridge for consistently great...