Black Velvet Coffee Roaster | Espresso & Wine Bar — Restaurant in Mammoth Lakes

I don’t ever write reviews, but this coffee shop left a very bad impression. It was empty today, walked in, stood at the counter for a couple of minutes while the employees folded t-shirts. They probably couldn’t hear us because the music was quite loud, but it’s fine, it happens.

Girl with sandy brown hair walks over, I go to order a triple shot latte, she tells me that she can’t make it because the machine only pulls two shots at a time. That’s the case with every espresso machine at every coffee shop I’ve ever been to. But every barista at every coffee shop, good or bad, has always made a triple shot for me. But not this one, she says “I can only do two or four”. I inquire again about three. Nope. So I begrudgingly settle for a regular 12 oz latte with two shots. I normally get a 16 oz with three but they only offer one size.

Over 8 dollars for this latte. Ok, I’ve heard good things about the coffee here, it’s probably worth it, right? I’ve spent more than that on great coffee. I got my order, two lattes, one for my girlfriend, over 20 dollars with an undeserved tip (I can’t not tip, I worked in the service industry for a decade).

Tastes like milk. Doesn’t taste like coffee at all. My girlfriend (who has been here with different staff working) agreed. It was a very bad coffee. Disappointing to say the least.

Went to Looney Bean down the street, it was bustling, probably because it’s actually staffed by people that know how to work an espresso machine. Ordered a 16 oz latte, three shots. One size larger, one more shot, 2 dollars cheaper. And tastes a heck of a lot better, too.

Don’t want to knock Black Velvet as a whole, I’ve heard good things. But the experience I had there was akin to a drive through espresso hut next to a...

TLDR: Coffee was mid, order setup was confusing and the baristas were unnecessary rude.

When we walked into the coffee shop, the only barista on duty was busy making a drink. Two iPads were positioned on the counter with the order screen facing outward, so my husband and I assumed we were meant to place our order ourselves—which we did.

After waiting about five minutes, I noticed no one was making our drinks and realized I hadn’t specified “to go.” When I asked the barista, she seemed surprised we had already ordered and told me orders should be placed with her. I explained that both iPads were facing outward with the order screen up, which made it seem like we were supposed to order ourselves. She said sometimes they leave the iPads that way, but “we should’ve asked.” I responded that there was no way for us to know to ask, and she repeated that we should have asked anyway.

Instead of checking our order in the system, she just asked what we got, and I suspect she mixed up which drink needed oat milk and left out our extra shots of espresso. After receiving our coffees, I got back in line to confirm we had the extra shots. By then, a second barista had arrived, and she immediately gave me attitude, insisting we shouldn’t have ordered on the iPads. She said she checked our orders and we had double shots in our mochas, not quads. I told her I had ordered the extra shots, so she said she would “triple check.” When she did, she found I was right—we had ordered quads—and refunded me $6.

Overall, not a great way to start the morning. Both baristas were unnecessarily rude, and the coffee itself...

I’ve never given a bad review to any place, but I must say one employee at this coffee shop was super rude. It started from us standing in line and her asking everybody to move out of her way in a very rude way as she was bringing some stuff in. The line was very slow, it took about 20 minutes to order our drinks and another 10 to get them. while we were waiting after we ordered my little son wanted to have some water and since the water jar was empty, I asked her to please refill the water, she replied in a very aggressive tone that it “will be a minute” We waited for a few minutes and asked her again and she repeated the same thing. I said well we’ve already waited in line for a while so how long will it take? My son is thirsty. she said well “any time between 1 and 10 minutes, I have 40 drinks to make” and hen she said “you can just go to the store and buy some bottled water.” Wow! I had a plastic cup in my hand, so all she had to do is pour some tap water, which would take her less time than replying to me in this rude manner .

All the other employees seemed very nice and I just asked the girl taking the orders to fill some tapwater which she did without a any fuss. Coffee is pretty good, but I would not want to return to this place because of the stressed out vibe of this one lady (30s, plump complexion) and a long wait. The weight was definitely...