Bard Coffee — Restaurant in Portland

Today I made my daily visit to Bard Coffee in Portland. I really love that place I was introduced to it just this summer. My office is in Portland and in most cases I visit it twice a day. I love their iced Vietnamese!!!

A couple salty experiences have me wondering if I should continue to support them. In the grand scheme of things I will continue to support them. Its not fair for a single employee to reflect the entire business... although others would disagree.

My First Salty Experience- (Bard) " How can I help you today sir? (ME) Hello, I'd like a large iced Vietnamese coffee please. (Bard) A large is going to be XXX extra is that ok? (Me) yes thats fine... I pay sit and read half of a newspaper article- (Bard) "large Vietnamese" (Me) "oh oopps I ordered an Iced coffee not a hot coffee. (female Bard Employee) Um you didn't say iced. (Me) Sorry you must have misunderstood me. i don't drink hot coffee I'm sure I ordered an Iced" (Bard) "Ok" as I walk away she remarks to fellow coworker. "He didn't say Iced" just loud enough for me hear her. she finished making coffee and called my order I grabbed my coffee and it was delicious as usual. I was a little put off by the fact that the person taking the order didn't seem to have very good listening skill.. and on top of that she argued with me about what I ordered. Ouch not how you treat a customer.

Today's Salty Experience- (fast forward four months and $543.00 spent on vitnamese coffees) Again I went to bard for my afternoon ICED Vietnamese coffee. I've been collecting a large amount of change due to my Coffee habit.. I empty my pockets in a empty coffee cup that sits on my desk. So today I reached in and grabbed oh $4.00 or so. maybe a total of 10 pennies. I ordered my coffee from the same girl that handled my first salty experience. pre warned her that I was going to give her some change.. and that she could keep the remaining. ( roughly a dollar extra) WOW here is what I got.. "really change?" "really change?" "really change?" "really change?" "really change?"

(Me) kind of chuckles to the rest of the patrons who are visually set back at this employees actions- " well you try to make me feel worse about it"

First time I've EVER written a bad review on a business. Get a clue about...

BARD Coffee is wonderful, really that's all there is to it.

I could say more. I will say more. Just a few things.

First, the coffee is delicious, and, WELL PRICED!!! Second, BARD is OPEN when you need, want, or crave some java. Third, they remember you!

Expanded:

The coffee really is delicious. If you're being honest, how many cups of terrible coffee are you going to continue to buy before you commit to being a loyal BARD customer? It's always good there. Maybe it's pride of craft, the quality of the beans, water, etc. Maybe they actually measure proper amounts of grounds and water! But it's GOOD HONEST coffee; better than By Design, Cia Cafe, Arabica, and others. And they discount your cup if you bring a mug. That's the way it should be! (I am looking at you Cia Cafe!) Not to mention, I am happier to tip on a discount, especially when we are both honestly doing something to help the environment.

And like I said, this coffee shop is, wait for it, OPEN for business. 6AM Monday through Friday, and they close at 7PM. Some of us, probably most of us, love Portland for it's close knit landscape. We wake up, and work is just a few minutes away. So, rather than go through the hassle of making coffee (and wasting coffee) we make the effort to head out of the house a little early. BARD is open the earliest in the city. That's it that's all. They know they are serving the life blood of the early morning community, and they do their best to cater to people.. who DRINK COFFEE. Crazy, crazy stuff, I know.

Finally, they remember you (after a while). They have a healthy staff, so you may see someone different from day to day, but after a few visits they actually warm up to you and start to predict your needs. I am speaking for myself, but I really appreciate that. It's a two way street ultimately, and they appreciate a smile and greeting from you as much as the other way around. They also offer loyalty coupons.

Thank you to the team at BARD Coffee! See you.. tomorrow...

I’m writing this review on only the espresso. My first morning in Portland I ordered a double long espresso and it tasted like motor oil. I have no idea why but it was not good. I don’t know if its the coffee they use, or perhaps the method in which it was made, but it did not taste good- which is hard to do. Perhaps they don’t cater or have coffee that caters to espresso drinkers? I don’t know but the taste was not good and I wish I had known. The second day I tried Buzz coffee. I have no idea why but neither place tasted normal or good. but if you’re a “coffee shop”, this should be the easiest and first things you perfect how to make. The third day I caved and went to Starbucks. I’m not a fan of Starbucks but at least the espresso tasted like espresso. Maybe there needs to be an espresso tasting class for these independent Portland coffee shops? Because I’ll tell you, I’d much rather give small businesses my business over a conglomerate like Starbucks - but the product has to be up to snuff- it just has to. Please taste your products, please taste test others. We need independent businesses, but we need them to stack up or taste better than the...