Heine Brothers Coffee - MidCity Mall/The Highlands — Restaurant in Louisville

**Note: this review ended up going to the Mid City Mall branch but it happened at Gardiner Ln branch. I’ve never had issues w/the quality of their coffee. I also like supporting my local businesses. So I’m partial to Heine Bros. However, that being said I’ve only had 1 issue w/staff since they opened in the 90’s. I recently fell in love w/their Raspberry White Mocha hot coffee so I stopped at the Bardstown Rd/Gardiner Lane branch which is my go to branch, to buy yet another. Three to four customers sitting inside, no one at the counter nor at the drive thru. I’d been standing there a few minutes & noticed a man & woman conversing behind the counter, who I assumed was mgmt. There was also a young female barista that was working & she obviously knew I was standing there waiting. I said ‘hello’, she never responded, so I said ‘hello’ again somewhat louder, still no response. She finally walks up to take my order but before she does she proceeds to school me about how rude I was trying to get her attention. Being curious I had asked why she felt that way as I’m all about correcting any misunderstanding. She only elaborated on my efforts of saying ‘hello’ to get her attention. Then she boldly again said I was rude & she didn’t appreciate it. After that she ignored my attempts to talk about it even though no one was behind me. She refused to answer while constantly & repeatedly asking for my order. I gave it to her along w/3 gifts cards I needed her to check balances on. After looking at the first card she commented that it was an old gift card she hadn’t seen in forever (referencing my age-I’m 63) & didn’t check it claiming it was “just too old”, handing her another she gave me the balance & immediately rang my coffee on that card. She told me no need to check the third one. So undoubtedly I probably lost about $10 with that since I throw away cards with no balance. I proceed to the bathroom, came out to wait for my coffee noticing 4 customers waiting to order. The other female barista came over & put my coffee on the counter, called my name for me to pick up. At that time I chose to explain one last time that btw I was only trying to get her attention for service but she obviously wasn’t interested in ANY conversation. This so disturbed me, about 5 minutes after I left I called to speak w/a manager. I explained in detail the beginning of my encounter. When I began to describe her he said I know exactly who you are talking about. Well imagine that. Although he was very nice & understanding & invited me to stop by to get some sort of free drink cards or something but I keep missing him so I’m not sure what to do now. I should’ve absolutely asked for the manager right then. Listen, young people under 30 yrs old need to comprehend that ANY person older than them should be treated with respect & reminded if it weren’t for customers coming in they wouldn’t have a job. This should be mandatory training in any service job. As I said I vehemently support local businesses (besides they’re better than Starbucks) but her behavior was unnecessary & extremely rude. In all actuality this has happened before as the mgr stated to me l, so she should’ve been let go. At this juncture I’m very hesitant to order from that branch again. I will also relate this to my friends but honestly I’m tired of my generation always saying “well they’re young”. I reply saying that they had a severe lack of home training by...

I need to find another cafe. In the last 6 months at this location, I've experienced:

(1) A belligerent patron who had to be kicked out by police (2) A man having a heated argument with his girlfriend while counting baggies of heroin under the table (3) A man bothering customers in an attempt to flirt but clearly not welcome and clearly not taking cues (4) A man come in yelling, who paced around the store, put random fliers and condiments in his pants, yelled at the cashiers demanding money, and then left while the baristas were on the phone with authorities (5) Overwhelming smells of human urine and safety caps from syringes in and around the store

The upside of this location is that it's usually open later than most cafes, the baristas are saints, and there's ample parking. But the downsides are many. The prices are a bit high. There is probably a 1-in-3 or 1-in-2 chance that you're going to be there when there's someone there who should be kicked out for being disruptive and belligerent. (And then you add that the owners really fought against their workers unionizing, and the reasons stack.)

It's really hard to recommend this place when within a couple of miles, you have the Day's just down the street, the Sunergos on Norris, and the Quills a little further up the street. If you go a bit further, you can go to the Please and Thank You or the Quills on Frankfort. Or you can go to many shops downtown.

Ownership should probably employ security, especially for afternoons and evenings Thursday - Sunday. There's a super weird vibe, despite the great workers...

I love Heine Bros - they have the best food, mission, etc. I have been served well at this location but had a weird experience today. They took my order, a banana chai iceberg and a scone. I brought my own cup, a 20oz. The cashier was newer. She asked the worker behind her whether she should charge for a medium or a large because my cup was right between the sizes. She said a large, which I thought was strange because I brought my own cup to save them a cup, you would think they would charge me for a medium since they're not giving me half a cup (4oz) of what they charge for a large. Then, I went to sit down. The cashier came and asked if it would be okay to give me a frozen drink because that's the only way they could do the banana in it. I said yes, that was what I wanted- the iceberg. Then, the other more experienced worker came over and told me that since the new employee didn't charge me enough, I needed to come pay for the rest of my order. She couldn't figure out how to do it though so she just charged me $1.59 for a banana. So the other customers waited while I stood there and counted change. I feel like it's kind of silly, since it was their mistake they shouldn't have made a big deal and got me from my seat to come back and pay more. I did not make a mistake in my order, it was just a new employee that heard me wrong and entered it wrong. But it was the experienced employee who made such a big deal. I have never had someone charge me too low and make me come back and pay. Really strange and...