SoZo Coffee House — Restaurant in Chandler

5.0 star rating 4/19/2016

I'm not a coffee aficionado. Hell, I don't even really like coffee that much. Being one of the unfortunate few people in the world that is not sensitive to caffeine, it doesn't do a thing for waking me up, and most coffee tastes like distilled disappointment. Why bother with it then?

I've asked myself that many times over the years. Usually after finishing a freshly brewed cup of so-what. SoZo answered that question for me.

We ended up here for the first time to attend a Music Maker's Workshop performance. As a courtesy, I ordered coffee. Most groups booking performances are expected to produce a certain amount of revenue for the venue as part of their booking fee. A couple of coffees isn't too much to contribute...

I had a Macadamia Nut Cappuccino. Everything I've had since then has tasted... pedestrian. I'm no critic, and I'm certainly not so worldly that I can speak with authority about coffee or coffeehouses, but I do appreciate excellence. Life is too short to settle for the 'meh' version of anything. There is nothing 'meh' about SoZo. The people, atmosphere, and product they put in front of you is what makes life brilliant.

It's out of our way, to be sure, but worth passing up every Starbucks and Coffee Bean...

I like to stop in at new (to me) coffee houses, on the way to destinations around the valley and I stopped at SoZo Friday on my way to have lunch at a friends house. It was my first visit and man, I wish I had places like this closer to home.

I just grabbed a latte, but the flavor options were fabulous and when I asked about specialty drinks the gentleman at the counter showed me the list of seasonal items as well as mentioned to me a few of their other available combos that I didn’t see posted anywhere. I got a large brown sugar-maple syrup latte with almond milk. It CAME with 4 shots 🤯, and it was right around $7 AAAAND it was fabulous!

The space is really cool and took me back to years ago visiting coffee shops for poetry slams and watching local bands play. They have a stage which was setup with a drum set and mics, with lots of plush seating. It was just reeeallly cool! I’ve scoped out the events calendar a couple times to see if there’s anything going on that might interest me. SoZo is at the top of my list of favorite coffee shops around...

My wife and I went on a Friday night not knowing it was an open mic night. This was a pleasant surprise as we intended to only grab a coffee and stay for maybe 30 minutes. We ended up staying for over an hour and a half listening to some truly amazing and talented local artists. Everyone there was so friendly, and kind to each other. It was really quite refreshing. Both of our coffees were really good. The only problem I had was the gentleman behind the counter. I saw him chatting up and being nice with some of the regulars. I went up to pick up our coffee and said "hey man, how are you?" and he just stared at me, after a second I said "well, you have a good night" and again he just stared at me. As a cargo shorts, t-shirt, and New Balance shoes type of plain guy I probably didn't fit the crowd there that evening but everyone else was nice and we were chatting with a bunch of friendly folks. Oh well, I won't hold it against SoZo or even the gentleman in question. I just found the interaction a little uncomfortable and...