PLANTATION Coffee Roastery — Restaurant in San Carlos

My friend and I were looking forward to Mary Ann's ice cream as part of our usual San Carlos evening - dinner at the wonderful Chinese restaurant (King Chuan) followed by a walk and then ice cream at Cowabunga Creamery. I guess we'll lose weight now as we won't be going back to Cowabunga.

We walked in and two kids, maybe 10-12 were ordering ice creams. After the employee had scooped one bowl, one of the boys thought to ask to make sure their gift card still had enough money on it. The employee asked the owner about it and the owner said one free scoop. The kid said it was supposed to have a few dollars on it, but the owner kept saying free scoop. The employee explained to the owner that the card had a cash value, but the owner didn't say anything more. I spoke up saying it was a prepaid gift card, thinking the owner just didn't understand. But then the owner told me he doesn't accept the gift cards since he took over from the old owner and doesn't have a machine to read them, so he just trades them for one free scoop.

The boys said that was all they had and asked what they should do, given that one serving of ice cream was already scooped. The owner didn't say anything and the boys ran out of the store, embarrassed and afraid. Our hearts ached and my friend suggested she pay for the boys' ice cream, but they were already down the block.

The employee then asked what he should do with the ice cream and the owner told him to put it back in the ice cream serving tubs!

My friend and I left. Not only was that a health violation, but we lost our appetite witnessing the owner being mean to those boys. We will not be going back.

It's one thing to explain to an adult that even though you bought the business, kept the name, logo, and reputation, you don't want to honor outstanding gift cards, but to treat little kids like that? That's just wrong. It cost him two ice creams tonight and plenty more...

Unnecessarily rude

We've lived in San Carlos for 8 years and I've always taken my daughters to get ice cream here even though the prices keep going up ($6 for a mini now) to support local businesses.

That changed today when we had such a rude and frankly surprisingly hostile interaction with the woman who owns plantation.

Our 5 year old wanted ice cream but was thirsty so we stopped in and asked for a cup of water before we ordered, and I can only assume the woman was annoyed that I didn't buy a bottle of water.

She glared at us the whole time and as I went to throw a cup in the trash she stomped over, took the cup out of the trash and yelled "NO YOU DONT DO THAT" and poured the liquid into a bucket next to the trash and waved the cup around angrily and then put it back in. We and other customers were so shocked at how angry she was and my kid was confused and scared so we left without ice cream.

I don't know what all is going on to make her react that way, but if you don't want liquids in your trash just put up a sign. The little bucket was not obviously for that, and also I noticed she didn't wash her hands after reaching into the trash which is also concerning.

We will be going to Gelataio and Tutti Frutti...

Can't comment on the drinks or service, I've only bought beans here over the course of about half a year.

Unfortunately they aren't in the business of roasting any of their coffee lightly. I've asked a few times now for the lightest roast they had, hoping for better, and got a medium-dark city or full city roast.

Columbian: Roasted pretty dark, full-city. Bit of a burned ashy flavor. Not much going on there Espresso blend: Mix of city and very dark, almost french roast. Had some character brewed as drip, couldn't get the bitterness out when pulling espresso, I think the blend was too spread out for actual espresso Guatemalan: About as light as I could get, still a city roast and was showing oils. Probably the best of them, has some nuttiness and retained a small amount of acidity I tried the french roast for a laugh. Wouldn't recommend

Overall, if you are into dark or medium-dark roasts, you can probably squeak out good coffee by asking for the lightest beans they have on hand. The price, 8 for 8oz isn't terrible to try a few either. If you're into light bodied coffee,...