392Caffe — Restaurant in Davenport

All style, no substance.

On a daytrip to the Quad Cities, I made a list of places for Emily and I to visit. After pouring over all the possibilities, we settled on getting 392 for our caffeinated needs.

We pulled up to a bunch of sidewalk construction but were lucky to find our way inside. Once inside, we were greeted to a really loud, really vibrant coffeehouse. Nay, I wouldn’t call this a coffeehouse. It felt more like a jungle gym. The place felt upscale, bougie, and a bit pretentious. We walked up and were greeted by some friendly, if not standoffish, baristas. Emily knew what she wanted beforehand but once she got there, she tried ordering a cold brew with some flavor shots to it. The barista seemed confused and told her she should just order a different item (a blended drink) if that’s what she wants. Well, they finally worked it out and Emily got what she wanted. I got my usual iced americano with no troubles.

The place was busy not with just kids but there was a business meeting going on. The place was very loud and reminded me of Zion Coffee Bar. Stark white walls with sounds bouncing around. Luckily, Emily and I were making plans to dip out and explore the city with our coffees in hand so we weren’t subjected to the volume for too long.

The wait time wasn’t too long for our coffees with how busy the place was. We waited maybe 10 minutes for our drinks and were very happy to make our way on to the next destination. Maybe we are getting older and hate sound but it’s not a place we could’ve sat and enjoyed a quiet conversation or relaxed to a nice book.

As we left, we tried our drinks, and I knew instantly my drink was a bust. The americano was an off-light brown color when it should’ve been a deep brown. It tasted… off. Emily hates my americanos but she took a willing sip and said that my drink was messed up and couldn’t place it either. It’s like they used only one shot of espresso for the size; it was too diluted, too not-espresso-y tasting. Emily really enjoyed her cold brew, and we made plans to get coffee somewhere else later in the day to make up for it.

I can’t say I recommend this particular 392 location due to the weird vibe amongst the baristas and awful Americano/espresso. Maybe it was an off day or maybe that’s just how it is. The change from your typical coffeehouse was a nice change of pace, though! I don’t get up to the Quad Cities too often but would be willing to try one of their other locations after I make my way through all the other...

Look, I get that rushes happen. But when a business consistently operates at a crawl with an understaffed team that moves like they’re navigating through molasses, it stops being a “rush” and starts being bad management. A 20-person line, DoorDash orders stacking up, and a crew that looks like they’re auditioning for a sloth documentary—this isn’t just inefficient, it’s disrespectful.

And let’s talk about the DoorDash drivers getting strung along like unpaid interns. We don’t get paid to stand around and wait for a business that clearly doesn’t respect our time. If the owner/vendor had to sit and twiddle his thumbs unpaid for half an hour, I guarantee there’d be some miraculous improvements. But instead, the attitude seems to be: Not my problem.

Well, here’s the thing—it is your problem when people start avoiding your store because the word is out. If multiple Dashers are warning each other to steer clear, that’s not bad luck; that’s a bad business model. Either fix it or watch people take their money and their service elsewhere.

Ps . Just to clarify for Jay, my complaint was about how you run your business and the ridiculously slow service. If your skin is that thin, I can only assume this isn’t the first time you’ve heard it. A 10-minute wait might be reasonable if I were a walk-in customer, but you got that order long before I arrived—so now we’re looking at closer to 20 minutes. Even DoorDash let me unassign it without affecting my rating.

Reviews exist so people can share their experiences—good, bad, or in this case, painfully slow. So maybe stop clutching your pearls like a 1930s housewife and take the feedback like a grown-up. Don’t worry that will be my first and...

High expectations are a dangerous thing, a couple of years ago we made an unexpected stop at 392 cafe in Clinton, when I found they had a second location in Davenport and the fact I was going to be in Davenport Saturday morning I got really excited and had really high expectations. High expectations are rarely met and on this day 392 did not meet my high expectations, it exceeded them! Let’s start with the thing I usually end reviews with, the service, the staff at 392 was amazing, they actually got to know us and our likes in no time at all. They were so welcoming and friendly without being weird. On this day they had three drip coffees and when i inquired about them, they offered samples! I felt like I was in a premium ice cream shop. The pastry case again reminded me of a premium ice cream shop, samples would have been dangerous. I had the Heavenly Mama breakfast sandwich, the only thing about this that was typical was the egg and bacon, after that is when things got delicious, gouda for the cheese, a house aioli, and a toasted homemade brioche bun. The one surprising part of the sandwich was the thick cut tomato. The acid from the tomato really cut through everything else. One of, if not the best breakfast sandwiches I’ve ever had. My mixed fruit pastry which I can not pronounce was amazing along with the energy puck my wife had. My wife said the caramel latte was the best she has ever had. Would you judge me if I drove an hour and a half just to return to the 392 cafe? Because I just may. The only negative about the morning was I was so excited I failed to take any pictures....