Vintage Cafe — Restaurant in Montgomery

I visited this café while in town for work and was looking for a comfortable place to stay for a few hours. The atmosphere was charming, the menu looked appealing, and the staff were friendly. My food arrived quickly, and the space appeared to offer plenty of seating, including outdoor, downstairs, and upstairs options.

However, I am giving three stars because I ultimately left feeling very uncomfortable. I initially sat at a four-person table to accommodate my work devices, bag, and meal. For about an hour, everything was great, but then a man approached me while I was clearly working with my headphones on. He asked if I was waiting for anyone, and I explained that I was just working. I even offered him the extra chairs since I wasn’t using them. Despite this, he insisted that I move to a smaller table behind me, claiming he had a larger group joining him.

I politely asked if there were any other available tables, as I preferred to stay where I was, but he insisted that I give up my spot. As a paying customer utilizing the space for its intended purpose, I felt pressured and uncomfortable. To make matters worse, no one ever joined him while I remained there, which made the situation feel even more unsettling.

I immediately informed the manager, who was very understanding and offered to find me another seat, but by that point, I no longer felt comfortable staying and chose to leave. While I appreciate the staff’s kindness, no customer—especially a woman—should feel intimidated into giving up their seat in a café. I hope the establishment considers ways to ensure a more welcoming and secure environment...

Went for a nice late afternoon lunch. You order and pay upfront and they cook your meal to order. They have barista's on staff and the food is chef quality. The lunch was a nice light choice of salads, sandwiches and soups for the most part. I was hungry so I had the arugula salad and their turkey BLT with fruit as a side. I also ordered a chai tea. They give you a table number, you seat yourself and they bring the food out to you.

Wait time was very reasonable considered it was cooked to order. The arugula salad was a nice starter with great taste, flavor, and freshness and a nice plate display (sorry I didn't photo my food). I substituted to turkey for my BLT because they had run out of chicken for the day, which was fine because restaurants like this often strive for fresh quality and a part of that sometimes means running out of certain items. They also just recently opened this restaurant and I'm sure they are tweaking the details as they go.

I would certainly recommend them for lunch and I'm certain their breakfast would be wonderful as well. As far as atmosphere the building was converted from an old regions bank and the vault is still visible as walk-in storage space for produce and such. The styling is more of a modern look with sealed concrete floors and white, black, and grey coloring with a large front window and steel accents. The seating is on two levels with a large wood staircase leading to the second level. The base level has cushioned wall seating with a barista bar with mixed baked...

TLDR, not great for a quick pickup.

Our experience may have been better had we not had a string of several small complaints that made the next one feel more significant, beginning with an employee bypassing my husband (he cannot use the stairs) who had waited for the downstairs restroom while I ordered. But I get it. If you are young and nimble, you’d probably assume that someone waiting for the restroom will stand in front of the restroom door in the small hallway. And this is not the first place where we’ve experienced overpoliteness getting in the way.

The experience ended with me rushing out after a half-hour wait with our food, only to find that a part of our order was missing after we pulled away—the part of the order I had chatted at length with the employee at the register about.

All in all, my main recommendations are: if you need a place to use your laptop for a few hours with coffee or any very simple order, it seems nice. The cafe itself is cute and well lit (including the restroom). If, however, you are hoping for a nice spot to pick up a substantial meal on the go, maybe skip this one. They have many employees working but (maybe therefore?) communication seems to be on the onus of the customer, based on the several negotiations I overheard while waiting for my order. And if I had not been in a rush myself to get the family on the road after our unexpected delay, I would have had to engage in one myself. Because we never did get the pastry half...