Lanza’s Cafe — Restaurant in Carrboro

Changing my previous review after today- coffee was tasty but the customer service at this place was absolutely awful. Person taking the order seemed nice but didn't speak the entire time, I was assuming shy on that one. But, after waiting 20 minutes for a bagel and sandwich we were asked what we were waiting on and told them and they said it was coming right out and that they had a lot of food orders, the entire time we were sitting there only one kitchen order came out before ours and the rest were all pastries. 10 more minutes go by amd the bagel comes out on a plate (we ordered to go) and the girl giving out the food was so unapologetic and smug about the entire process I really should've just asked for a refund. The bagel finally comes out again in a bag and they said have a good day, so we said we still had a sandwich and she rolled her eyes and said it's coming, another 5 minutes. Meanwhile her (red bandana) and the guy (tiny mustache) were giggling and cutting up behind the bar, darting they're eyes in our direction. I don't like being assumed I'm the subject of conversation- but it was kind of obvious. Like damn, it doesn't take 40 minutes to make a bagel and cream cheese and if you were really that backed up maybe say "I'm sorry for the wait" instead of "I mean yeah we're busy" as if I don't notice the only 1 food order come out before me? I've worked as a barista for over 6 years and in customer service for over 15 so as understanding as I am. This was enough that I will never return to a coffee shop...

I've been here three times now. The first time I came looking for a sweet or baked good of some kind and there was not one single thing available. The second time I came for coffee and had to deal with an an incredibly rude barista. They ran out of coffee and were only able to fill half of the large cup I ordered. She told me it would be a 5-7 minute wait for fresh coffee and I said I didn't have time to wait as I was already running late for a meeting (the wait in line was very long in the first place). Instead of apologizing for the problem she sighed very loudly and, visibly irritated, she made a huge spectacle out of refunding the transaction and ringing it up as a small coffee (which she didn't know how to do and someone had to take over for her). In my experience, most places would just give a refund, but whatever. Oh, and the coffee itself was not good. Today I picked up a bagel and took it home to toast it. Honestly, it was practically inedible it was so old and hard and stale. When you are selling bagels at a 350% markup from the bakery where you get them, the least you can do is make sure they are fresh. I couldn't even cut it with my sharp serrated bread knife and after toasting it I found it tough and challenging to eat. So far I've been extremely unimpressed with this place, but I'll give 3 stars for the atmosphere and for potential (and two out of three counter staff were nice). I'll give it another chance or two, but if things don't improve I'll never go back. There are too many other good...

I have really enjoyed going to this shop for some time because the indoor/outdoor space layout is great, but I did have a strange experience a few weeks ago where the barista accidentally gave me a peanut butter chocolate chip cookie when I asked for a regular choc chip cookie. As someone with a peanut allergy, I could taste the difference between the two when I bit into the cookie. After I spit the bite out and told the barista, the barista corrected me and said that they had in fact not given me a peanut butter cookie. To their credit, they did give me a bagel for free in exchange for the cookie, but 3 suggestions here for this shop:

1. Mistakes are just handled better when you own them. I used to work in a coffee shop in the area and we bought the same cookies as this place, so I'm fairly sure I was given the wrong item (my slowly swelling tongue was also pretty telling). Kinda weird to get pushback when your body is starting to have an allergic reaction!

2. Individually wrap and label all food items with common allergies.

3. Don't store food items with common allergies side by side with other foods (as was the case with the peanut butter cookie and the regular choc chip cookie).

Still like the shop and still go - just wanted to pass this...