POV — Restaurant in Bryan

This is a great place to grab a coffee and take a walk or sit down and read or so some work. The interior is beautifully decorated with plants all over the place. The drinks are good and the baristas are very friendly and helpful. I do wish the drink case had some more interesting offerings. Would like to see some kombucha or some nice cold teas there. Tropicana and cokes is a little unimaginative and doesn't really match the feel of the place.

The food is pretty disappointing. The pastries are all old and not very good. They heat them up for you (a sure sign they don't start out fresh), but they are still stale after hearing. I also don't understand the need to have so many croissant-based pastries. These are hard to pull off well and need to be fresh to be good. I would stick to something simpler that lasts better. A three day old pie is fine, a three day old donut or danish is not. This is surprising seeing as they should have access to a bakery being part of the hotel. The packaged food options are some potato chips and cheesy Ritz crackers, which like the bottled drinks are disappointingly basic.

To summarize: vibes are immaculate, drinks are good, service is great, food is an afterthought and...

Every time I come here the barista who's asking me my order looks super depressed. I hope they're doing okay.

They say they close at 6pm every day, except Sunday which is at 5pm, but I just went on a Thursday at 4:45 and they randomly were closing at 5 without any warming on the website. I asked the person at the register for their drip coffee and she sternly said "We don't brew coffee right before closing." I was like, "okay," trying to not irritate her more, thinking they close at 6. Sure enough they do, but I guess they just expected me to know they were randomly closing at 5 that day. Also, when I was leaving I said "Have a good one!" and the barista just ignored me.

Coffee's okay, I'm not as picky as everyone else because I just go there for a quiet place to work. However, with all of the hard floors and furniture the sound bounces around like CRAZY so wouldn't recommend sitting inside but would recommend sitting outside. The outside lounge area is nice, if the weather's decent.

Overall, I would only go here to enjoy the outside area. The service is bad, coffee is okay, and the inside area...

-Mediocre barista practices (details below). -Nice atmosphere. -Nice location to go around the lake walk nearby right outside. -Large comfortable seating to study and/or chat for awhile.

Preface: I have 2 years experience working as a barista, and take that as you will because I did not master the craft in that time. It has been approximately a year since I first visited POV. The priorities of the service are still rather disappointing, but understandable for a small city coffee shop. Shots are pre-ground, raising questions of how long the coffee has been sitting exposed to not only air, but also moisture and heat in the group head. I didn't enjoy the way my milk was steamed, but I will chalk that up to personal-preference. The standard use of disposable cups is disappointing, but fits the college-town clientel. It does make me appreciate the mugs other places in town use. The latte art was cute though!

I prefer supporting local establishments, still prefer to go here vs a big...