Divine Naples Coffee & Wine Bar — Restaurant in Naples

Stop reading. Right now. Stop and go read reviews. NOT the good ones (I suspect they’re fake), but the negative ones. The ones with one star. Every. Single. One. Is about the owner being rude. Unquestionably, unbelievably rude to his customers! And note when he does respond, HOW he responds. If you have any doubts whatsoever, his response(s) prove the negative reviewer’s account. They were as shocking as the tales of his antics by people who have the misfortune of walking into his shop. Buyer beware!

Okay, read on for my experience.

On our way through Naples we followed Google to the highly rated Devine Naples Coffee & Wine Bar hoping for amazing coffee.

Upon entering, we were greeting by a nice woman asking the basics, what were we ordering, were we ordering to stay or taking it out.

Our first attempt at coffee in Miami had been thwarted by the establishment being on some kind of a military base. Two hours later we just wanted our morning cup of espresso.

After traveling for over three weeks and stopping in close to twenty coffee places, I wasn’t even sure what to order. What I get, I call a flat white, but in many places I get the response, “Oh, so you want a latte.” Um no. I prefer a stronger coffee taste. When at home, I make my own: 2 shots, 125 g steamed half & half (about 4 oz). Read anywhere and that’s the definition of a flat white. It has a layer of foam, perfect for latte art according to many websites.

I’ve had it called a large cortado, a latte, a flat white (but made wrong).

This morning, I was weary, I didn’t want to have to go through the ritual, so I began by telling this friendly woman that I didn’t mean to mansplain anything (explaining coffee to a barista), but that at home I made my own so I know exactly what I wanted and went on to describe it.

Foam was discussed and I said yes, we like foam. I followed up with, “We’ve called it flat white, but get such different results, it’s never right,” or something to that effect.

At that moment, I heard a man’s strongly accented words, “You’re calling it the wrong thing. That’s why you’re not getting what you want.”

I looked toward the man expecting to see a face with some indication of fun, good-natured teasing. Oh no! He was deadly serious! He went on in an overbearing tone explaining that his girlfriend / wife was from Australia and that wasn’t a flat white.

Startled that he’d been so abrupt and calling me wrong to my face, I remarked casually something about if you look it up, that’s exactly what a flat white was and he got even nastier when commenting, “Yeah, I’ve been doing this a minute.”

Doing what, exactly? Coffee? Or insulting customers? Because he was quite accomplished with the latter although at that moment I decided not to find out about the former.

I said, “I think we’re going somewhere else.” To which he said, “Yes, you should. That’s good idea.”

“And I’ll write a review.”

“That’s a great idea. I look forward to it,” in this ugly, sarcastic voice as we walked out the door.

And so here we are. If you follow my reviews, customer service is critical to me. I am astonished at this interaction. He could make arguably the most perfect cup of espresso. It could be better than any on the planet. And you couldn't pay me $100 to walk across the street for it.

As an alternative ending, he could have said, “You know what? My [significant other] comes from Australia. Let me show you a real flat white. You won’t forget it.”

What an opportunity missed. Instead, he decided to pick a fight with a customer who 97% of the time has fantastic interactions with baristas. In fact, in one place on this trip, we had the baristas confer and decide to give us the unused points from a regular who had passed away.

If I could give zero stars, I would. And yes, like you – If you’ve made it this far – I went out and googled what a flat white was. To summarize for you, while the numbers vary somewhat, it’s a total of 6 oz, give or take, with 2 shots of espresso and a layer...

This review is based off of the experience alone. My coworkers and I didn’t stay long enough to try anything because of how rude, and how uncomfortable who the owner (I’m assuming) of the place made us feel. We are not local to the area. Mask rules are still pretty strict where we live, so we decided to put our masks on before entering the restaurant just in case one was required. We weren’t sure if we were going to get something to-go, or if we were going to dine-in, so I told him that we just needed a few seconds to decide. He gave us literally no time at all, was extremely overbearing, and said something along the lines of, “you ladies need to relax and sit down. Stop rushing all the time.” We decided to sit down at a table outside. We took our masks off when we got outside, and he said, “so you can catch something in there, but not out here? No need to cover those beautiful faces of yours.” We explained why we put the masks on in the first place, but we were also creeped out by his statement. He also asked one of my friends if she was always so serious, just because she wasn’t smiling. The worst part was when he said, “I almost had to put a knife to her throat and kill her to get you guys to sit down” (referring to me). I don’t care if it was a joke, it wasn’t funny. That’s not something to joke about with people you have never met before. He also just hovered over the table after giving us the menus, and wouldn’t leave until I told him we needed time to actually look at the menus. We left as soon as he went back inside. Overall, he just made us feel extremely uncomfortable. He was one of the most unprofessional and inappropriate business owners (still assuming) I have ever encountered, and I would not recommend visiting his...

The four of my wife and I and another couple attended DN on Dec 2/21 for breakfast after reading reviews about how terrific the food and coffee was. We were not disappointed as the croissants were absolutely outstanding, along with all of the other food items for breakfast. While I do not drink coffee (I enjoyed the free water - you need to attend the establishment to understand this :) ), the other three all had one of the many special coffees and raved over how good they were. Now while the meal and coffee were great, the most enjoyable part of our time there was getting to know the gentlemen who we assume is the owner (he never did tell us this or his name). In life you meet many people, and sometimes you meet people you’ll never forget - that was this gentlemen. He was brash, opinionated, funny, clearly well educated with good street smarts, and he could take as good as he gave. It was a ton of fun trading barbs with him on politics, covid, and many other topics. If you are thin skinned and can’t laugh at yourself - well you’ve been forewarned. Lastly, DN is clearly very proud to have stayed open all throughout covid, to not have received any governmental support, and to have served first responders during the most difficult periods of covid. They deserve to be proud and commended for this. Looking forward to our next trip to Naples and visiting Divine...