B-Side — Restaurant in Decatur

This is a relatively new coffee shop in the area (less than 4 years old as of 2022, I think). It is quite unique to have an approachable coffee shop attached to the upscale restaurant next door, and I think it's a good idea.

I hate to leave 3 stars, but the coffee itself leaves a lot of room for improvement. The espresso is not up to current third-wave coffee standards. It is drinkable, better than the likes of ChocoLaté Cafe, but not nearly as good as Dancing Goats, for example. The coffee was under-extracted and the milk texturing was not a proper "microfoam".

It's entirely possible that some of their baristas are better trained than others and that their quality is simply inconsistent. This review is based on one visit.

On the plus side, they have a nice array of food options and a cozy atmosphere. The location is great, and prices aren't crazy. Still, the espresso quality is not competitive.

They also do not have a lot of vegan food options, which is simply silly these days. (As an example, many local establishments purchase vegan baked goods wholesale from Southern Sweets Bakery and resell them at reasonable prices.) Their milk alternatives (oat and almond milk) add $1.50 to the cost of a coffee, which is unreasonable. A carton of Oatly Barista Edition costs $4 and will make 5+ drinks.

I would strongly recommend that management invests in professional barista training and a move to weight-based dosing and bottomless portafilter extraction (so that baristas and customers can see the quality of the extraction). A better grinder, an automatic or self-leveling tamper, a set of digital scales, and a couple hours of training would go a long way to making this one of the best coffee shops in the area.

There is great potential here. I hope someone sees this feedback and considers...

Finally! A new bagel spot! I've been wanting to try this place for a while and finally got a chance to go w/ the boyfriend on an early Saturday morning (they close at 3pm so be sure to catch it as early as you can).

Located in downtown Decatur in the square, right across from the Marta station, B-side offers a nice charm and decor to it. I love dark green and it was def nicely color coordinated w/ a large black chalkboard that showed off their menu. I went for their everything bagel w/ smoked trout shmear, tomatoes and arugula (I wanted cucumbers initially but they were out) and the boyfriend also go an everything bagel with onion and chive shmear w/ bacon. Not going to lie, those bagels were pretty on point and that shmear was delicious. Although mine was a bit chewy (we always request for our bagels to be extra toasty to avoid that), the flavor of it was great. (They make all their bagels in house) Also, I think either they mistakenly gave me regular cream cheese or the trout shmear I had asked for tastes nothing like trout.

I will say that they were busy enough to put the staff in the weeds. We had sat at the bar to enjoy our bagels and I can see the one girl by herself with prob 10 tickets in front of her. And of course, during the midst of all that, the fire alarm goes off. Kinda had to laugh it off at that point.

I def plan on coming by again to try their other options and also to request for my bagel to be open faced (personal...

I have one major issue with this place. My husband and I come every weekend and typically drop around $65-70 on coffee, pastries, and breakfast sandwiches. Everything TASTES delicious which is why we keep coming back. The issue I have is that EVERY time we come we order our coffee EXTRA hot and every single time what we get is barely warm. I have to measure the temperature of my coffee at during the week at home because I add something to it that has to be under 145 degrees or it degrades. So, on two occasions I have brought my thermometer...108 degrees and 110 degrees. That's BARELY warm. For reference, I used to barista and coffee should be served ideally between 120-140 degrees. So if some asked for extra hot--it should lean toward 140. And for those who don't know, when you heat up the milk, you can HEAR when it gets to a point where it is really hot. I know this sounds really nitpicky but this is a specialty coffee place where I spend typically around $20 for both our coffees alone. We should be able to get it actually more than warm. It's really really really annoying that no matter how I ask, I can't get it hot--but we LOVE the flavor of their lavender mochas...

So to the establishment---PLEASE train your staff on how to make coffee drinks that are actually HOT. Or next time don't be surprised if I ask for you to stick it in...