Caribou Coffee — Restaurant in Minneapolis

If you haven't been here in a few years, you'll notice some changes to the atmosphere in this stalwart at the south end of Nicollet Avenue's 'Coffee Corridor'. As with Starbucks now, the original European coffee shop aesthetic of a community meeting place where you might stay a while has been abandoned. I remember armchairs, a couch, a working fireplace, and two single user bathrooms each for men and women. I also remember those comfy spaces and bathrooms being commandeered by aggressive indigency and getting accosted for money at the entrance and exit. The Starbucks at 5th and Marquette ultimately had to close because of regular assaults to staff and customers, including myself, from street thugs. Such was (and still is to a great extent) the state of woke Minneapolis, and no one was allowed to complain. With the new political climate, however, reality is starting to be recognized with policies that while not exactly new, just weren't being enforced. Like not allowing in-store loitering and aggressive panhandling, and only giving restroom codes to actual paying customers. Also changing the furniture to something just comfortable enough to eat and go. As a Starbucks patron practically since they came to Minnesota in 1988, I grudgingly recognize the coffee and food offered by Caribou, which had it's start in Edina in 1992, is a bit more interesting. The Turkey Provalone looks nothing like the picture though. However, the staff has never been particularly friendly and the process of taking and delivering orders is frustratingly inefficient. A recent order of a plain coffee and unprepared bagel took a 15 minutes wait in a 3 person line and 20 minutes more to 'prepare'. At the 100 Hennepin Ave Starbucks a 20 person line would involve about a 5 minute wait with multiple order takers and coffee would have been poured and the bagel grabbed by the person ringing me up for a one minute preparation. And as mentioned by other reviewers, Caribou staff aren't big on special requests, like taking the cheese off a sandwich before zapping it, which Starbucks would be happy to do. Caribou just doesn't have the cool factor to get away with a belligerent staff like Spyhouse does. Name tags are either not worn or disguised. Prices for basic items like the various brewed coffee sizes or bagel options aren't posted. And finally, there is just one of two locked bathrooms available to customers here now, with the other (formerly women's when such distinctions were made) having a paper sign which had indicated it's just for employees, but now just says NO. With more management oversight, a better ordering and preparation plan, and more motivated staff with a better attitude, this shop could have ten times the volume with it's current great location near the Convention Center and across from...

The location is convenient, but the service is lacking. I went to pick up coffee and bagle sandwhiches on a sunday morning. I expected it to be busy, but surprisingly it wasn't. I had to repeat every part of my order probably three times to the person running the register. I figured he was new, and that's okay, but there was no one there to help him. Finally my stuff gets rung in, but then there's no barista there to make it. There's one person in the back, preumably doing all the food, but the coffee orders are juat sitting there piling up. As i wait, I realize half the people in the restaurant are also waiting for to-go orders. The food is slowly coming, but still, no one has gotten their coffee. It wasn't until someone decided to cancel their order and demand a refund (which the poor kid at the register didn't know how to do), that a third employee miraculously appeared, got the other customer's money back, then asked me what i was waiting for. I repeated my order yet again, then the guy asked another customer he knew by name if anyone had made any of the drinks yet. She said no, and he got to work. I eventually got all my stuff (prob. ~25 mins), which is fine since i wasn't in a hurry, but I can't imagine what happens during a rush or with customers who are less chill then the people who were there when I was. I think they just...

Visited this location 3 separate times while staying at a nearby hotel over the weekend. The location is great, very clean, staff are friendly and welcoming. My one complaint is on the first day there I asked about if the gluten free breakfast sandwiches were still heated up in their own packaging for cross contamination safety. The person working on day 1 assured me that yes they were. I ordered one then it came wrapped in foil paper so I knew otherwise. Day 2 I asked a different staff member and he assured me that no, due to packaging catching on fire caribou no longer heats up the gluten free sandwiches in their packaging anymore but stated he could place it off on the side to heat to reduce cross contact. He told me that the day 1 worker unfortunately lied to me.

As someone with celiac, I have to put a lot of trust into people preparing my food. I don’t appreciate being lied to at all about food prep safety. I’m glad the day 2 worker was honest with me.

The facility is otherwise clean and nicely decorated with lots of seating options, and the drinks were exceptional every time. If it weren’t for being lied to about food prep I would have given this place a 5/5. Maybe work with your staff on training so that they don’t accidentally harm someone with an autoimmune disease...