Drift Coffee Shop & Kitchen Ocean Isle Beach — Restaurant in Ocean Isle Beach

I first want to preface with, we are dealing with unique challenges during the pandemic and with numerous conflicting views and fickle mandates, I can understand it being difficult to run a small coffee shop. Having said that, I’ve had the worst experience ever. A mask was required for entry and masks are provided to those who enter without one…Great. The coffee shop may be 1000 sqft at best. The people seated were not masked and their tables weren’t far enough apart to justify the logic of requiring masks for entry….I digress.

At any rate, the food is ridiculously overpriced, the staff is very uptight and the to-packaging ended up leaking all over my car. On top of that, the food wasn’t even that great. I ordered tow sandwiches, a burrito for Mom, a coffee and tea. Coffee came out first and we were waiting on food. Food came and I grabbed the honey squeezer to put honey on my sandwich. I was given a nasty attitude from one of the staff members when I reached for the honey. That same girl snatched the bottle of honey from my hands without gloves as if her hands were magically cleaner than mine. Unbeknownst to her, my hands were sanitized immediately after I paid for my order and I’ve already grabbed that same bottle of honey for my coffee.

I felt super uncomfortable the entire time was inside that restaurant. It gets worse. Upon exiting, I grabbed an orange juice that I’ve paid for out of the fridge and the “Don’t Touch My Honey” girl darts out of store after me to accuse me of stealing. I’ve never been so insulted and embarrassed from a coffee...

I apologize for taking this long to get around to updating this. The owner, Ben Powell, reached out to me personally through both google hangouts and facebook. He was very kind, apologetic, and generous in response to the negative first impression I received in visiting his establishment. I will be changing my review rating so as to better reflect the kind of place Drift Coffee actually is rather than just leaving it a one star based on a not so ideal situation. If I am ever back in the area, I plan to visit (during the correct business hours) and will update my review accordingly. See below for the original review.

ORIGINAL REVIEW (left as is): Hours are 7AM-5PM, yet when I showed up at 4PM to get some food, I was informed the grill was "turned off for the day". This is honestly unacceptable from any establishment. Nothing on their website nor menu indicate that items are only available during limited hours. Seems like a little bit of laziness to me to not keep your equipment running for potential customers. I understand the desire to begin "wrapping things up for the day", but to deny a customer something from your menu an hour before close is unacceptable.

I notice that all the other reviews are 5 star and I am sure I would have been as well if I would have been able to actually get a delicious sandwich. One star for poor form. And I am sure you will know...

Drift coffee needs to get there business figured out, today I was trying to get some take out food from Drift one of there bowls and to my mistake I called the Wilmington location when I was trying to get food from the OIB location, the person answered the phone and took my order failed to inform me that I was calling the Wilmington location and not the OIB location. Later I showed up to the OIB location and the attendant, a women with blue hair told me she did not have any to go orders at all and preceded to tell me and I quote “oh you called the wrong location, that happens all the time” in a smart attitude tone. I tried to then order food from her to correct my mistake. She then told me that the kitchen was closed and she could only do drinks at the time which doesn’t make sense to me, the Wilmington location was more than willing to take my order and fulfill it at 3:15 in the afternoon when they close at 4 and the OIB location refused my business and I left unhappy and without any of the food I was looking forward to eating and enjoying. This was my first experience with Drift Coffee and I can assure you I will not be returning period. This business needs to get it figured out and stop the confusion of people placing orders at the wrong location. Thanks...