Caffè Far Bella — Restaurant in Saint Clair Shores

Looking at the other 1 star reviews it looks like other people have had a similar experience to mine with the rude owner. I came in here for breakfast on a Tuesday at 10am. I brought my laptop in so it wouldn’t be left in my car. When I came in there was one other man in the restaurant who was sitting at a table and on his tablet drinking a coffee. I ordered a bagel and a tea and the woman who took my order (I’m guessing the owner) seemed annoyed by this but I tipped 30% anyway. I went to sit down and she says “excuse me, didn’t you read the sign, no laptops allowed” (I did not see a sign) I said “oh I’m sorry, I’m not staying long, just long enough to eat” she replies “I’m not supporting your home office”. At that point it was just awkward so I sat quietly until she silently brought me my bagel (which was stale). Needless to say I won’t be back. I get restaurants may not want people sitting on a laptop and taking up space all day but #1 you’re a coffee shop #2 the entire place was empty, there wasn’t exactly a wait for a table and #3 there are MUCH nicer ways to communicate your policy. It’s sad because my best friend is a local influencer with 80k metro Detroit followers and I was literally holding up my phone to take a picture of this place to ask her to promote it because it was so cute....

The only reason why I came is because I thought I could sit down with my laptop and do some homework. As I was ordering the lady asked me what was in my backpack I said "a laptop". She said "there's no laptops allowed in here under any circumstances". I was a bit confused as it wasn't very busy and plenty of tables were open. I then asked if reading books are okay and she said "yes books are fine". I then went on to say that my book is digital and it's on my laptop. She said "well then it's not okay". I was standing for a while then she muttered "well I guess you could go to the back corner with your laptop". She also said their reasoning for Banning laptops is the prevalence of remote workers taking up too much space as they are considered a full service restaurant. So is this a cafe or not? Smoothie was good, food was good, atmosphere was really nice. Wish I could...

Here's how my experience played out:

I go into Caffe Far Bella to work for an hour, get coffee, and breakfast. The cafe is literally empty except for one table.

Guy at counter: Oh sorry we don't have internet to allow computers to connect to.

Me: Oh no problem, I'll use my Hotspot.

Guy at counter: Oh no, you can't do that either. We need to keep spots open cause people actually eat here, it's a cafe. 🙄

Me: Looking around at a nearly completely empty cafe OK, just an espresso to go then.

The espresso I ordered tasted burned and full of tannins. The espresso I got at Starbucks from Kroger right afterwards was much better.

The place is decorated nicely, but lacks any type of welcoming vibe. It's super dumb that they'll shoot their customer in the foot, just to prevent them from being able to get some...