The Optimist Raleigh — Restaurant in Raleigh

Fiction Coffee just opened this week at Crabtree Terrace. I had a great experience.

Beverage: The “Blood Simple”. Espresso, Sparkling water, and one of Fiction Coffee’s amazing housemade syrups: “Blood Orange Fennel Juniper”. On the rocks, it was clean, refreshing, and coherent, like a cocktail that was meant to be sipped at your go-to speakeasy. It was the most creative and unique coffee beverage I’ve ever had at a coffee shop, anywhere.

Service: Spencer (co-founder and director of food and beverage), Bretina (coffee manager) and Saxon (barista) were ALL surprisingly personable and engaging. Very attentive and knowledgeable.

Ambience: The layout is open with lots of natural light and fresh executive décor. Upbeat music, just the right vibe to be productive. Nice outdoor seating options.

Operation: Although it was only day 2, everything was running incredibly smoothly. Everything worked and made sense. Seemed like they had been in operation for months.

Location: Super convenient and central, across the street from Crabtree Valley Mall at the corner of Glenwood Ave and Creedmoor Rd. It’s tucked away behind Perry’s Steakhouse and Fidelity Investments. Overall, a great place to meet for coffee, whether for business...

New to Raleigh, and decided to check out a new place for coffee and breakfast on quiet Sunday morning. There were great reviews here so we decided to try it out this am.

They were out of the tea my husband wanted. They were out of the breakfast meat he wanted as well. - two strikes

The sourdough breakfast sandwich he finally settled on was so small, we thought it was a mistake. It was on two small slices of a baguette - like way smaller than say an English muffin would have been, like maybe half the size of a croissant. Not what you expect when ordering sourdough bread especially for the price. Strike 3 for him.

I ordered a decaf latte. I specifically listened for him to repeat 'DECAF' to me.

It's now 1:30 am and I am still WIDE AWAKE. I have had the jitters, nervousness, and crankiness all day ... and all night now ...

sigh ...

He didn't make it a decaf. He re-checked the order and forgot to put DECAF when he entered it.

I was only slightly joking when I asked him for his phone number so we could chat while I was still up at 3am.

Unfortunately, our visit did suck.

We won't be back here though it's a...

I come here pretty often and I usually have my dog with me which I don’t take into the cafe as I’m not allowed (understandable). The staff advised me to place an order online and they’d bring it to me outside - which I’ve done multiple times and it’s been great. Today 10/6 at 3PM I did the usual routine of sitting outside, placing an order and calling the shop to let them know I was sitting outside and have a dog. The barista was completely rude on the phone and said fine I guess. Then he comes outside and calls my name - when he sees where I’m sitting he audibly sighs and then when he hands me my coffee tells me that they don’t normally do this - says who? I’ve been here upwards of 10 times with my pup and no one has ever said they don’t do this. So let me get this straight - I can’t bring the dog in the shop yet the can’t bring the drink outside? I must be missing something. He was very rude and told me to sit closer to the shop? I won’t be returning to this coffee shop and I’ll be taking my business to Idle Hour which was way better...