Front Porch Coffee Shop — Restaurant in Lakewood

TLDR: Rounding up to a 5 star review because they in no way deserve a 4 but probably a 4.75 taking the average of two ultimately small +/-'s which are belabored and contextualized at the bottom.

If you imagine the Denver Metro area/suburbs west of downtown as quadrants then this is one of the best all around Venn for a coffee shop in the southwest quadrant.

Coffee is quite good. The black drips and pour-overs are flavorful and complex with little or no burnt/ashy-ness while the espresso is the nicest to sip straight (as espresso properly should be, if it is good) until you get as far north as Village Roaster. Their syrups for specialty drinks are homemade and at the better end of that spectrum for the ones I have tried.

Atmosphere is nice with great views of the mountains and varied comfortable seating, indoors and out. Staff is friendly and prices are a bit more than competitive. For any of these categories, as far east as Broadway and as far north as Colfax, you might find 1-3 coffee shops that beat it in 1+ areas but not all of them.

+/- 0.25 School adjacent. With it's remote location it is quiet all morning long till being temporarily punctuated by high schooler lunch time. The quiet is usually starkly ends when school lets out. A la school schedules, this is very predictable and avoidable if needed and directly consequent to them intentionally making it a welcoming, safe place for teens after school, for which my appreciation outweighs any personal bother I feel.

+/- 0.25: If you show up you will realize it is in an old church building next to the newer replacement. If you aren't of the church ilk to the point this outweighs everything previously said, I'd still recommend you give it a try for three reasons.

Firstly they seem to be doing legitimate good, from supporting sustainable, woman-ran coffee farms to supporting mental health resources at the adjacent high school.

Secondly, I have been there a many times and set up working for hours but no one has tried to proselytize me. While it's a regular experience to be subjugated to overhearing overly loud religious conversations at any suburban coffee shop, I find, if anything, it is paradoxically less likely to happen here despite members of the church staff regularly popping over for quick meetings. For sure if you are directly in the coffee counter portion of seating with headphones in you would never know you are in a "church" coffee shop.

Thirdly, the decommissioned-sanctuary-as-coffee-shop makes for novel and agreeable ambiance with its spacious peaked timber ceiling, copious yet diffused seating and equally copious outdoor seating options of wooden porch or stone courtyard. All this still comes with a small, properly modern coffee shop off the back wall with great light, as if stepping into a juxtaposed space Meow Wolf style. One way or another, most of these spots have great views of...

This place has great coffee, I never had Lost coffee before but it is very very good. The cold brew is my particular favorite, gotta take it slow though because that stuff will make you see sounds and taste colors. I have tried the bonfire burritos, also very good. I am a very big fan of the sausage and egg breakfast “sammie “ that they offer. I think it tastes like what McDonald’s wishes they could cobble together and the quality of the biscuits it comes on is infinitely superior. I have gone here to work on projects for work or operation planning for my other job, the atmosphere is pleasant. I notice the other people who get all bent out of shape because there’s teens there, I find that crazy because I think it’s amazing that you find so many kids under a church roof all getting along for the most part. Whenever I see those folks who get all grumpy I’m like “how bitter are you?” I tell you what’s not bitter, the coffee. Smooth as silk my guy. The music is uplifting and the staff is always so polite and helpful. I’ve never met any of the staff that doesn’t have just the biggest smile on. Also, they post some pretty killer artwork in there and you can go to the little book area that’s in the church and buy a book if you’re ready to read something that you can hold in your hand and dog ear the pages like a madman. Once you got that Sammie and coffee all mixed up in your gut you’ll find that the bathrooms are tastefully done, nothing crazy but clean and nice. They do a great job maintaining the cleanliness despite the rush of teens sometimes. I’d expect that place to look like a science lab after that much traffic but nope, pretty dang...

Spacious coffee shop at The Bridge Church at Bear Creek. Main seating area appears to be a converted worship area --- 3 story high reaching to pointed ceiling. Very nice wood celing and floors. Local art on ways. No explicit Jesus stuff. Between the high ceiling and a garage door size sliding door open to the outside, the ventilation is very good. Tables are widely spaced inside, and there's a half dozen tables and some chairs outside. The wide spacing of tables inside, the fact that most are quite high (more barlike than coffee shop like), and the lighting is not great makes it a somewhat iffy place for pen and paper work. Several outlets, but most tables not near them. I happened to try this place on a summer Saturday morning, and at 9 a series of local young people started performing music -- mostly light instrumental and Christian folky stuff, with the quality you'd expect from this sort of set up. I moved to the most distant table outside to work and it was bearable. There's a small case of pastries and a small breakfasty menu. I had a mediocre pastry and a good breakfast sandwich. Tea is bagged and undistinguished, but there's several kinds. They brew their own chai mixture from English breakfast tea (bags, I assume) and spices. It's a bit too sweet, but better than most...