Freelance Coffee Project — Restaurant in Newport Beach

My friend and I were in Newport Beach, far from Hollywood, where I call home. After a quick early errand we were in dire need of caffeine. Freelance was highly recommended so we checked it out. You go down an industrial looking street to the almost last building. This one was covered in greenery. And dispute the almost lack of signage, we could literally smell the beans roasting and kind of figured we found it.

Walking in, immediately it was obvious that this was just a coffee shop. It clearly was a sort of Mecca for those who needed an electrical outlet, plenty of room and counter space, comfy chairs, if that was your vibe, and also had the most adorable store. I honestly had to stop myself from buying everything there.

After going through the foyer, a mini shop, two rooms of work space, and just kind of, industrial fixers and walls, we ended up at the actual barista’s counter. It was a relatively more limited menu if you say, frequent Starbucks. But everything they had looked fantastic. There was also a little refrigerator with tasty looking snacks.

I ended up trying their blend of chai with almond milk and my friend stuck to her old faithful, a flat white. But it was anything but your average morning beverage. The beans were roasted just enough to have the flavor without sacrificing the caffeine. Their chai blend is fantastic. I love when chai has a notable taste of turmeric.

All of the staff was incredibly friendly and not pretentious, like I expected them to be. It was really packed for a 10 am on a Friday, as well. I was impressed. Clearly this is a neighborhood spot people feel safe and free to work and relax in. Which is a breathe of fresh air from how most coffee houses in Hollywood, especially, are.

In the end, I took (obviously) a ridiculous amount of photos and we both were really glad we stopped there. And we’re kind of bummed it was literally an hour and half from us.

If I find myself in Newport again, I’ll definitely go out of my way to stop there, grab a...

First Time for us at freelance… We look for hidden gems like this… And this is for sure one of them! So why did I give it four stars instead of five? I really debated this because this is a 5 Star place all day long… and that’s why I rated the categories as five stars. Coffee was excellent , Atmosphere is amazing… open style with doors and windows open, It’s off the beaten path which we love… Not some busy street with traffic whizzing by… Patio is fantastic… The atmosphere is incredible… Staff is super friendly… and the whole vibe of this place is such that you could spend all day there. Even if this is out of your way, you must go here… It’s like a destination coffee place if you’re into that sort of thing… It would be a great place to go for a cruise in a classic car and come here for coffee… Lots of parking on a quite street where you could see your car or in the lot. Everything a classic car guy would love. They do not take cash, so make sure you’ve got a credit card… on July 20th when we visited the dishwasher was broken so even though we were enjoying our coffee on their beautiful patio, we had it in paper cups… And we really felt they could’ve benefited from offering more than only one size, 12 ounce is it… Whether you want bigger or smaller you’re getting 12 ounce… It was so good. I wish they had a larger offering… I’d be happy to pay the typical dollar more for a larger size, and they can certainly make everything iced but it’s still only 12 ounce… By the time you get ice in there you’ll be lucky if you’re looking at 6 ounces of liquid… So just a thought… These are the only reasons I didn’t give the overall rating five stars because in my mind a five star rating means there’s nothing you could improve. Love the staff there… Hope they read this and appreciate your wonderful service...

Decent beans, way over priced, somewhat weak pour overs that get less vibrant as they cool. but a nice spot to hang out and work with a few outlets available.

The experience: The anomaly that made the experience super weird though was a guy who was seemingly on the phone for almost 2 hours loudly talking in an incessant barrage of words, later escalating to walking outside and taking his shirt off. Hope the guy was okay but it was a bit of a disturbance.

The coffee: Nice selection of pour overs including (at the time we went) a Peruvian bourbon and (off menu) a Kenya pea berry. Both of which are of my favorite varietal and mutation respectively.

Yet, despite a standard 1:15 ratio, the coffee tasted rather weak for our tastes (there were 3 of us) and fell a little flat - getting less and less interesting as it cooled down. As a comparison, some of the best roasters we've tried up in Berkeley have coffee that tastes more complex as it "opens up" and cools down. Like a good wine.

All 4 beans were different origins, but they all had a similar profile of low acid, low body, though fairly well balanced. If you like just a smooth, simple, more cocoa-y rather than fruity cup of coffee there's is good. Just not our taste.

We ended up not buying any beans because we couldn't see how any of the 4 beans we tried could be worth the $28-33 price tag.

Would recommend the shop? Sure as a possibly good spot to work with decent coffee if the loud guy isn't around.

Would recommend the roaster?...