Gray Owl Coffee — Restaurant in Norman

Was excited to try a coffee house in Norman that my wife and I have not been to. Wanted to avoid the cookie cutter Starbucks experience. That said, maybe 20years of drinking coffee all over the world hasn't been enough experience to appreciate the uh.... Unique, different take on basic coffee drinks served here? For a MUCH BETTER EXPERIENCE, go to Stella Nova a short distance from this place. Not only is the coffee incredibly good, the staff is less pretentious and a lot better at delivering a winning customer experience. For instance, if the coffee tastes burnt you can return it to the front, and they won't tell you why you're wrong, they'll happily replace it from a fresh pot no questions asked. (Could learn from this ppl @ grey owl)

Maybe this place uses an organic... Something, that makes a vanilla latte with soy taste so nostalgicly like the inside of a dry goods cattle feed store? With a thick, brown, malt-o-meal type grainy head on it that you can eat. Or maybe there is a process that's super proprietary that the guy in the rose colored Lennon glasses uses to make just a basic cup of drip coffee taste old and overheated (stale and burnt). Whatever the case, this isn't some place I'll spend money at twice. It's a coffee place that can't make me a cup of coffee better than my kuerig at home. And when returning a cup, they'll happily tell you all about the somewhat eclectic local organic ingredients they use that make your taste buds the wrong party in the conversation. Just don't expect them to return with a replacement cup that's going to taste any better.

We spent $3 on a large coffee, it was terrible. Didn't finish it. We spent $7 on the vanilla latte w/soy. It was returned for a basic cup of coffee with no refund for the difference in price.

This is a coffee place for people that maybe are in college and are just discovering a break from traditional coffee ingredients. But not for people that know and love coffee how the rest of the world prepares it.

On a positive note, it's a chill atmosphere (probably due to the lack of caffeine) and doesn't smell much like coffee (shocker). Music is indie and the decor is "look its another college coffee house with local 'art' on all the walls, and signature art deco couch". After this experience here, I'm jaw dropped by this place's yelp and google review ratings. This place has positives, but coffee isn't one of them. Which is kind of their only purpose for...

Don't live in Norman but my wife stopped and got a couple drinks to take on the road. Got about 10 minutes away before trying it only to realize it was made incorrectly. Called up there and explained the situation because she was pressed for time and couldn't just turn around. She was told just to come back when she had time to have it remade with no problem. Okay easy enough, stuff like this happens so she threw the drinks away.

Today we were in Norman so figured we'd stop by and get them. Calmly explained to the cashier the situation and asked to have them remade. I've never had another human treat me like she did. She explained VERY passive aggressively with a smile on her face how that just can't happen without me having the drinks with me. I tried further elaborating how it happened two days ago so I obviously don't have the drinks with me and how we were told we could just throw them out.

I even offered to show the receipt but was only offered an outlandish comparison from the cashier "if you bought a shirt from me and tried getting a refund with the receipt without the shirt itself, how would that make sense?" Literally not even a comparable situation but at that point I realized she was just going on a tirade (again, smiling the whole time like she wasn't doing anything wrong) so I said something along the lines of I'm not going to be treated like this and started to walk out. Then I got a loud chuckling and condescending call out from her across the store "Okay, I just don't understand but okay"

I replied with something that to be honest wasn't in best taste and walked out of the store. I got to my car and started backing out only to realize the cashier had FOLLOWED ME OUTSIDE and was yelling at me while I was leaving. At that point I just smiled and left without another word.

Rant over but I'll never be returning here. Maybe train employees to treat customers with respect. I'll completely admit the customer isn't always right. If I had started out being rude or aggressive, the treatment I received would be completely understandable. Respect is a two way street. I get you're just doing your job but you don't get to treat people like that without provocation. Smiling while being rude doesn't negate the fact that...

Their "small" coffee is smaller than the standard styrofoam cups in your average corporate breakroom, and costs more than $2.00 if you do anything to it. I asked for a blonde, the best they could offer was a medium roast, but there was no mention of the pour-over on the menu, and as a non-connesieur of coffee... Honestly I could've just picked up an extra-large at the OnCue instead. (Sacrilige, I'm sure.)

I don't recall any issues with any of the staff any of the times I've been here before, they've always been polite and friendly.

The chai tea was fine, if cloying (I don't think I've ever finished one.) The scones, cupcakes, and cookies have all been good but seem a bit expensive given the competition in the area.

The music volume is hit-or-miss in my experience: sometimes quiet and sometimes so loud I have to raise my voice to be heard by the people I tutor.

Overall it's dark, but the table lights add some ambiance.

NOT little kid friendly-- no changing places and I would dread setting either kid down for even a moment: the floors seem grimy. (Hey, I get it's a coffee shop, but y'all are going for an industrial look so guess what... Industrial can come off as grimy.)

If your kid can be trusted to sit and participate in conversation/read /color /watch a tablet /play on a phone, you can get away with bringing them here.

If you're a 20-something college kid... Enjoy. If you're a youngish adult who likes to hear the person across from you speaking and not pay an outrageous amount for a coffee... eeehhhh, I don't know that this is your place.

I've tried visiting at different times on different days to get a decent variety of experiences to pull from, but I'm pretty sure unless someone specifically asks to come back here and won't budge on it as a meeting place, I probably won't bother in the future (price, noise & quality.)...