Porchlight Coffee & Records — Restaurant in Seattle

This is my neighborhood coffee shop. Or it was when this was my neighborhood.

It has one thing going for it: good coffee. One of the best espresso drinks on the hill, and the competition is fierce.

But honestly, if it wasn't my local spot I would have to give it three or even 2 stars.

I can write this review now that I am moving away:

Surly owner is gruff on all occasions, often sarcastic, and personally insulted me to another patron when he didn't realize I was still there.

The seating is wildly uncomfortable. and the atmosphere is terrible. It's like the worst lawn chair furniture camped out in the office of a gas station. Bare concrete, plain drywall, and the only decoration is a very hit or miss art gallery that lasts for two months. Boring even when it's good. And that's about 1/3 of the time.

There's a leather sofa that is not bad to sink into, but it is a bit like that leather sofa out on the back of a wraparound porch in the West Virginia hills. Kind of too deep, too hipster, and comfortable only until you realize you are not drinking moonshine and killing mosquitos.

It's also a record store. A couple of bins of random unexplained vinyl in the back. This is a real mystery. i saw someone buy one once. In about six years of near daily visits, i saw one record sell. There are several top notch record stores in cap Hill where you can get your glass-tube vinyl fetish on, and this is not it.

And did I mention the grumpy proprietor? He is widely thought to be gay, and yet he chats up all the ladies while the guys wait in line. I don't know whether he's gay or not. Who cares? I want my damned coffee!

He doesn't exclusively hire grumpy people. There's a documentary filmmaker who plays awesome music, and runs the shop like clockwork. I always breathe a sigh of relief when she's there.

For some years there was a guy who was actually friendly! Too friendly. He would talk and talk and talk. He was apparently an expert at every field, historical or scientific. He opened a bike shop and thank God. There was only so much of his pontificating a person could stand. Maybe, like the furniture, it was all a ploy to keep people taking their coffee elsewhere rather than cluttering up the clean gas station lines.

Recently there was an employee who took this principle to extremes. As soon as her predecessor was out of the shop she turned some kind of scream-punk up to 11. The shop cleared out instantly, yours truly included.

Goodbye sweet porch light. I hope the coffee shop in my new neighborhood aspires to make coffee as good as yours, and ignores your example in...

On 8/4/18 I went to get a coffee at around 11am. I was first in line and the server was making a coffee for someone else but he asked me what I wanted. I replied “a breve latte please.” He then said “can’t you see I’m helping someone else?” I first didn’t do anything and paced around for 5 minutes and he still wasn’t finished...but then came back and said “could you just make me a breve latte and I’ll go sit down?” He responded, “no, you’ll have to wait inline until I’m done.” To which I said, “you know I’m the customer and you’re the server; why can’t you just make it and/or tell me when I can order?” It kind of sucks to just wait for him when there’s no reason. And I wanted to sit bc I have a back issue.

His response, “get out, you can leave.”

It’s pretty embarrassing to be treated with such disrespect by an arrogant barista when I just wanted to buy a coffee.

This place should learn manners. I tried to keep my cool when he was rude the first time but I told him I was the customer after the second time.

AVOID!!! Too bad too bc...

Staff is friendly and informative. Coffee is really good. It's not too loud. They allow dogs inside, I don't mind them but this might turn some people off, understandably.

Edit: I stopped coming here after bad experience with the owner(?) a few months ago. I asked for a stamp on their card after buying a bagel and getting hot water for tea. Seemed like he forgot the bagel because when I brought up the stamp he looked confused and scoffed. Maybe he thought I was freeloading for a stamp? I'm not really sure. He doubled down after I reminded him that I got a bagel too. It sucked at the time because I had been going here for legit 3-4 times a week since June/July-ish. It was like my 8th or 9th card lol.

That's my story, hadn't had any other bad experiences with him before, or the...