Avid Coffee — Restaurant in Santa Rosa

I didn’t actually step foot inside Avid Coffee—my wife braved the crowd and retrieved our order. From the car window, the place looked bustling, which in coffee terms usually translates to: “Yes, this is where the good stuff happens.”

I went with my go-to drink at any coffee shop: an iced white chocolate mocha. Now, let me rant for a second. At many third-wave/artisan shops, this drink gets treated like the embarrassing sugary cousin they’d rather not acknowledge. They’ll make it, sure, but it often comes out barely sweet, as if the barista whispered “white chocolate” over the cup and hoped for the best.

Not here. Avid absolutely nailed it. Sweetness? On point. Espresso quality? Spot on. Balance? Chef’s kiss. This is the first shop in ages where I didn’t feel the need to sheepishly ask for “extra sweet” on subsequent visits. They managed to craft a white mocha that both respected the bean and satisfied my sweet tooth. 10/10.

One tiny disclaimer though: three sips in and my breakfast was knocking at the door. I’ve always said, if you’ve never had a cup of coffee so good it threatens your pants, then you’ve never truly had great coffee. Well, friends… Avid makes pants-pooping delicious coffee.

Can’t wait to go back (after I double-check the...

They have the best cappuccinos in town and tasty food, but it gets packed and can be hard to find a place to sit, and often times there are people just sitting on their computers occupying tables. Moreover, over the past couple years they’ve gotten slower and slower at preparing drinks. It’s to the point now where people are literally grabbing drinks that aren’t theirs because they’re sick of waiting. I waited over 10 mins for a cappuccino today, only to have it snagged out from under me by a person who actually ordered a latte, and his latte was about to be snagged by someone else! When they re-made my cappuccino it only took less than 2 minutes, so they are obviously able to make drinks quick when they need to, but there must be an issue with their order fulfillment procedure. I used to visit frequently, like once a week, especially when it was Acre, but now days I only visit every couple months until I’m reminded why I stopped going there. Also, it should be known that this coffee shop used to be Acre, and is now Avid, which is under new ownership. It seems misleading to me that they get to keep all the Google reviews from when it was a different company even though the transition was slow and a...

Occasionally I'll stop here for a cup of coffee out of convenience more than anything, rarely will I get more than that. Today I stopped at the Montgomery village location and since there wasn't a big line decided to order a mocha and breakfast sandwich. 15+ minutes passes and 3 orders behind me, one of which was a family of 3, receives their orders of both food and drinks. Frustrated enough to not even care to say anything, I just left and let them have my money and keep my order. I've tried multiple times to enjoy them because usually it's good coffee and food, but the service is so unbelievably slow and unorganized it's just not worth giving them any more chances. I don't want anything from them, I don't want a "were sorry here's a freebie give us another shot", I want the owner or managers etc to read these reviews and DO SOMETHING about their consistently slow service. They should have done something about that prior to opening a pizza place in their restaurants. Saw the sign go up in Petaluma and laughed about it. A Stouffer's french bread pizza probably cooks faster than their...