Fremont Coffee Company — Restaurant in Seattle

Unfortunately, upon my first (and last visit) here I was met with disturbing behavior from the employee working there. He is a white male and was working there on Thursday, June 20th at 5:15 p.m. I emailed the owner through the "contact us" link on their website however I have not received any reply from them, so I guess they welcome this type of behavior.

From the beginning of the interaction, I was met with a less than enthusiastic attitude from the employee. At the time when I ordered my tea drink there was no one else in the store. The employee gave me the drink but after examining the drink further, I noticed lumps in the milk. The texture began to look like cottage cheese. This has never been my experience in all the coffee shops I have visited. Clearly there was something wrong with this drink. I took the drink to the employee for him to examine it. I initially said I'd like to have something else made because there's something wrong with this and I was met with the reply of "you need to get to the back of the line". ( by this time about four to five people had come into the store.) Even the way the employee said this to me was incredibly condescending.

The next person in line actually said to the employee "no you can help her out first", to which the employee still continue to ignore me and continued to make drinks for everyone else in line and pretended I was not there.

At that point I no longer wanted a drink and asked for my money back. I was then met with "no, I'm not going to give you a refund, and even if I wanted to give you a refund I'm not a manager". This was also said to me in a condescending and dismissive attitude.

As a black woman in a predominantly white neighborhood to be treated this way and watch others receive a completely different experience says A LOT. The fact that I have reached out to the establishment and have gotten no reply lets me know they do not care about what happened nor do they care to fix the problem. It says a lot about the type of people...

i've been coming here off and on for about five years. the location and music are awesome, the coffee is fine, the matchas lattes are terrible, and the baristas here standoffish and pretentious (which is par for the course in Seattle).

but today, after a really bad interaction with one of the baristas, i don't think i'll be coming back.

the actual details, if you care: i went to refill my water at the water station and noticed it was out, so i asked one of the baristas if he could refill it (i won't mention who, as i'm not trying to get this guy in trouble). he acted bizarrely inconvenienced by it. i was confused and asked him if i did something wrong, and he was like “oh well you just jumped me and demanded water, you could've asked them” [points to the baristas at the bar]. when he came back with the water, he was like “you gotta learn to interact with people” and started berating me about the whole situation.

i'm a pretty socially anxious person who is constantly trying to be as polite as possible to not upset people. i didn't jump him—i waited til we made eye contact, he asked “what's up”, and I explained what i was asking for.

i tried deescalating and calmly explaining myself, but it didn't take.

dude, you gotta learn to interact...

One of my fave coffee shops here in Seattle. It's close to my work, and free parking spots in the area. Walk up the old stairs to a an old house with an old door knob (love this), and enter a comforting space that feels like home. It smells wonderfully caffeinated. I stand in line for my almost usual mocha made with either oat or coconut milk, depending on my mood/stomach. There's always the one cheerful and polite barista with the long red hair (forget his name), and the others are nice and have their own colorful character too. The machines all possess funny anecdotes about computers rotting your brain or cell phone usage in line being a buzzkill (get it, buzz). I almost always get mine to go, with an occasional pastry, get my frequent stamp card punched, and look forward to the latte artwork in my cup. For times I stay in, there is plenty of seating in the various rooms or outside on the porch. Wi-fi is complimentary for a given period of time, and there are power outlets everywhere as well. The bathrooms aren't spotless and it's recommended you hurry to do your business (time limit). Who ruined that for everyone, I wonder....

Very tasty mocha lattes, and...