The Coffee Grounds — Restaurant in Eau Claire

As I have experienced it, Coffee Grounds is a cute and well-done combination of café, deli, and wine shop.

There’s a nice selection of cooking curios, cheeses, and other delicatessen staples, a generous selection of wines and other alcoholic beverages. It all feels local, but I’m not sure how local the wares actually are. Regardless, there’s lots of interesting wares to look at and browse while waiting for food or friends.

At the counter, there are café staples: coffees, espressos, hot chocolate, teas, muffins, scones, and so on. They also have a menu of breakfast entrees like oatmeal, eggs, and so on. While it was delicious, my breakfast entree was $10–11 for not much food—a bit expensive by my measure. I would have rather paid less for that portion size or gotten a larger portion size for what I paid. I suppose it’s more expensive because they don’t have the economy of scale that a dedicated restaurant would have.

This is my go-to coffee shop for getting work done when I’m in Eau Claire. It has free, unsecured wifi (no password required, either). On weekends, it’s usually pretty quiet around opening time and then for an hour or two. Last time I was there, the music was a little too rambunctious for optimal work, but I tend to be sensitive to that.

There are tables outside (behind the building) for those who want to bring a furry friend or just be outside! I don’t think they had a “doggy station” or trash bin for throwing away doggie bags (not that they need to; just remember to bring one if needed).

The bathrooms have always been very clean.

The staff has always been friendly. They’re short-staffed right now, so wait times are longer for food orders and they may have slightly reduced hours. (I hope they’re okay!)

There’s a back room with a semi-closed door I peeked in. The room looked like a brewery or distillery pub room. I’m very curious, but have never seen it occupied. I can see it being used for special events like catered company dinners, wedding receptions, and so on.

Compared to other coffee shops, I recommend the Coffee Grounds for meeting people, for catching up with friends, bringing out-of-town guests, going to get work done, or want to browse. It’s less busy/bustling than many breakfast places, so it’s excellent for...

Small botique gourmet food, wine, and spirits store. They roast their own coffee and discount old coffee when they are brewing new versions of the same. Also have coffee grinders that offer an actual french press setting. Perfect for finding gourmet spices and foods like cheese and meats as well as shelves upon shelved of wines and liqures. Great little sandwich and soup selections most of which are quite good. The new K project brewery is awesome. They have a wide selection of fantastic classic beers. Perfect for those who like non traditional germanic beer but not the wacky over the top beers. There is a quite large selection of great cigars in their humidor as well as smoking items such as actual cigar ash trays, butane torches, and cigar cases. If yoi ask you can also sign up to order flahs frozen seafood such as tuna, salmon, shrimp, etc. They also have a great selection of cookware that any good chef would appreciate. If you're looking for anything a little odd or hard to find check this place first. If they don't have it I'm sure...

Went in to purchase retail, they are taking seemingly no COVID precautions as they had a very full dining area of unmasked patrons. The environment made me uneasy and will for most people who care about stopping viral spread. I will not be back, just a heads up for people in the community that are COVID conscious. It's disappointing to see a local business I would have once recommended show such a lack of effort toward safety. An edit in response to the owner's response: Being compliant with health department standards and promoting the utmost safety for staff and patrons is not the same thing. What you described is not sufficient for my comfort level and won't be for people who care, as I said before. COVID is spread person to person by respiratory droplets/aerosols, not by touching surfaces and numerous studies have shown in person dining to be a high risk transmission activity. Many coffee shops and restaurants have moved to to-go only to keep staff and customers safe, and those are the establishments I choose to continue...