I'd been meaning to post a review for a while; the owners asked for details on my low rating in a very cordial and friendly manner so here it goes: My husband and I were passing through the area when we decided to look for a highly rated coffee place. Sub Rosa came up. The pastries looked homely and wholesome, and the place seemed like a nice place to sit and sip a cup of coffee. We decided to go for it, excited to have found a real bakery/coffee shop and take a break from driving. When we entered, the lady behind the counter said she'd be with us in a second. It was more like 10 minutes. I noticed that while she made a coffee drink by the machines, a pastry was reheating in the electrical oven. 5 minutes later, I wondered how the pastry would turn out. We looked at the pastries left, and when the girl finally took our order, I asked her if the pastries in the cooling racks were available for sale; to which she replied, in a very exasperated tone, that the ovens had been turned off for the day and that they only had what I saw.

First, I understand certain batches are made at certain hours, to serve them during specific shifts, and that all this is predetermined by the store manager based on previous traffic and sales logged, if he/she is a good one.

But here is the problem: It was 4pm in the afternoon. This meant that all of those pastries would be sold the next day, over 12 hours later, as freshly baked goods, when they are not. That is a problem, because it is misleading. Any baker worth his salt knows pastries and baked goods, with few exceptions, are no longer considered fresh after 8 hours. This is why real bakeries sell their goods at half price after 4pm; because they are getting rid of the baked goods they will not serve the next day because they are no longer considered fresh (it's something to do with the gluten and sugars, and the changes the pastries experience after being baked).

Here's another problem: No one should leave the store without something in their hands. You always want a customer to leave happy, because you cannot rely on new traffic alone. What's worse, new traffic spreading the word will leave you with neither returning customers nor new customers. The girl behind the counter should have used her common sense, and seeing that we did not want any of the pastries in the window and would rather walk out hungry than take the day's leftovers, should have made an exception. Maybe then I would have tasted your pastries, and the review would be about the taste of the products. I'm only one customer, but I can't imagine that I'm the only one noticing these things, so left unaddressed, these minor hiccups, do turn into bigger problems.

By the way, on our way out, I looked at the plate of the guy who was served the chocolate croissant. As I expected, he'd taken the top layer of the croissant off and placed it aside: It was burned, but strangely, he hadn't had the courage to send it back. This spared the girl behind the counter of the discomfort of having to apologize, but I don't think it spared the store from that customer later on telling his friends he was served a burned croissant.