Estate Coffee Company — Restaurant in San Antonio

This is absolutely a lesser known, San Antonio gem! I was recently invited for an early morning coffee meeting to Estate Coffee—a place I had never been before, and was pleasantly surprised by my experience.

I am nowhere near a coffee caunesseur, but also don’t like going to the big name, Seattle coffee kinds. You’ll usually find me at more local coffee places, but oftentimes I find myself intimidated by a lot of them because again, I am nowhere near the coffee professional.

What I loved: Local San Antonian owned—company is owned by a local San Antonio, furniture business owner, combining his love of furniture crafting into a really cool industrial coffee shop. 90% of the furniture in the shop are either repurposed or hand crafted by him! It’s really cool.

Atmosphere—whereas, some other local spots are heavily populated by local coffee lovers and coneseurs, Estate coffee does not have this same intimidating feel. I have been 3 other times since, at different hours of the day, and it is never overrun with too many prying or judging eyes when I order a simple vanilla latte. The baristas are also very homely, kind, informative and welcoming. Masks are also required in this establishment, which I love. There is also a lot of windows that allow for a lot of sunlight and a homely feel, it’s awesome.

Look—beware though, the shop is on the outskirts of downtown and does NOT have an outside sign. So if you are speeding or not looking, you may miss it! However, if you have passed the since-closed Spaghetti wear-house, you are going the right direction. Just slow down a little and the shop will be on the right next to “Broaddus Construction” parking. Again, it has a really cool industrial look in a repurposed abandoned building.

Taste—I am your basic coffee lover. My go-to has always been a vanilla latte and have tried many big chain, gas station, and other local coffee places, but let me say. Estate coffee has the BEST tasting vanilla latte, hands down. That is why I got hooked after my first visit. It is NOT overly sweet or containing a heavier bitter coffee taste. It’s the perfect balance of the two and what honestly makes the drive from Alamo Heights all the way downtown worth it. My fiancé is also a big “black coffee drinker” and has already tried 4 different kinds and has loved them all. He is also very picky with coffee smell and taste, and is also hooked. Try the slow-drip!

What could be better:

Pricing—I am an Accounting and Finance professional, so of course supply and demand, location and market are all impactful to the bottom line and pricing. However, the only variant I feel could be reconsidered is pricing. As mentioned, my now-favorite vanilla latte can be purchased to go, but in a very small 6oz cup for about $6. And If you want a bigger sized (think grande-size Starbucks cup) cup, they don’t allow it. I had to finagle and coerce the baristas to charge me more for a larger size just because, “we don’t sell the latte’s like that”. I was charged 2 vanilla latte’s and a “to-go” fee which equated to about $15 for a grande size cup. If it were my first time trying and this was the case for pricing, I definitely would not have been back.

The overall taste and ambience are good, but Please be open to more to-go size considerations and pricing considerations,...

I love - and am honestly more than a little surprised - that San Antonio is such a good coffee town!! There are SO many good coffees here, but so far Estate Coffee is far and away the best coffee I've had in SA, in my quest to try (and frequent 😆) them all.

I went in specifically to try an Old Fashioned spin on espresso that I'd read about, using bitters and orange zest and bourbon barrel-aged brown sugar. Apparently that's a seasonal thing and currently unavailable - whomp - but they were able to make me a double cortado using the BA brown sugar.

The real stars came though when I went back for a roadie. The Dude mentioned that they also were at the tail end of a couple summer seasonals that they could make - a strawberry cappuccino, and an iced something (Totally can't remember what it was called, which is sad, bc IT WAS BOSSSSS) involving espresso, seltzer, orange zest, and lime Couldn't decide, so I got both lol - best. decision. ever.

The cappuccino had the best pillowy foam, and you could totally identify the strawberry - like a muffin. So delicious! And the iced orange & lime espresso seltzer?? 💙 I was hesitant, but it turned out to be the very best coffee I've had in a really long time 💙 Hope I can have it again before its...

Relaxed little coffee shop In a calm area of town. Not many people came and stayed, so it was very calm and easy to do work. I also like the decorations, which are very minimal and not distracting. I also really liked that the entire shop has big windows, allowing for lots of natural light.

The drip coffee was not my favorite, but the flavors made a huge difference. The baristas were super friendly and accommodating, and allowed me to try different flavors since I didn’t like some. At the end, I ended up really enjoying the peppermint flavor, which was my fourth cup (including plain black). If it wasn’t for the baristas allowing me to try different flavors and being excited to tell me about them, I would have left thinking the coffee here wasn’t good for my taste. My friend also tried the vanilla latte and that was great too.

As per food, they didn’t have the donuts I saw on the pictures (sadly for me haha) but they had banana bread and pop tarts. They also have breakfast tacos, which are vegan, and looked decently large for the price.

Overall, another great coffee shop! Friendly staff, coupled with a great minimalist vibe make this place a perfect work...