Spill the Beans — Restaurant in Spartanburg

Ohhh, spill the beans how much I want to love you... Unfortunately, as it stands, it appears I can't just yet. This contemporary chic café is a great place for college students who are looking to pump out a couple of hours studying about Human anatomy. It's also nice for any professionals trying to meet that deadline for your project that's been on the back burner for two weeks. I believe that this place is so appealing as a workspace because of the design and overall interior design of the café.

It boasts a primarily white pallet with accents of mid-tones for countertops chairs and other forms of furniture. The large pane windows provide more than enough light to the Spill The Beans interior and the light interior design allows for the light to bounce and illuminate the rest of the space rather effectively. The interior is very comfortable, which is part of why I love coming to this coffee shop so much.

Regardless, however good the interior design and atmosphere is, it's still a coffee shop. Spill the beans' main thing is coffee, yet they don't always do it well. It’s understandable that the shop gets busy sometimes, but as a café, you have to maintain quality even when there is an influx of customers. The very first time I visit Spill The Beans, the coffee I drank was probably one of, if not the best cup of coffee I had ever enjoyed. The second time, however, the magic was lost. My coffee was more water than coffee, and there was no hint of expresso.

As I've said before, I want to love this place, so I didn't leave it at that and went for another visit to try again. "Perhaps it was just a bad day," I thought. Sure enough, my third time going back to Spill The Beans, the magic had been restored. The coffee was thick, rich, foamy, and decadent. This was the quality I expected and hoped to receive when I went back for a fourth and fifth time.

Unfortunately, Spill The Beans just does not seem to be consistent. The fourth time I went, I asked for my usual, A caramel Mocha. excited to experience the magic I was told "The Expresso machine is broken." After that I fell into a deep dark depression for the rest of the day as I had to conquer the world with no Expresso. And on visit number five, the quality was anything but magical...

My Scone was cold, but that wasn't a big deal. I just got it warmed up more in the magical heat box we call the microwave. The part that made me write this short thorough review of my experience with this coffee shop was again the quality of my coffee. I'm not sure what it is exactly, if it's no foam, not enough caramel, or something... There was no magic. My caramel Expresso just tasted like a regular sweetened coffee. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing... It's just not the magic I was expecting.

For the record, that's:

2 - Magical Caramel mocha's that made me skip down the street 1 - Cup of water that I thought was coffee, 1 - Cup of Coffee Milk with a hint of mocha, and 1 - Cup of nothing because the Expresso machine was KIA.

As for the staff, they are nice. They seem to work very hard to run this shop. It's been the same two young ladies in there every time, from what I remember. I've seen how they've interacted with customer, they really try to provide an enjoyable experience to the patrons, and they even have memorized the orders of some of their more loyal visitors. My message to the staff if you've made it this far, is maybe just to take your time. Don't give way to the stress of the job and start rushing because when you rush, your quality drops. I rather wait five minutes for my coffee and it be Magical, than to wait only 2 minutes and just be "okay".

I will visit again in the future. I hope when I have returned I get that great taste and experience I was looking forward to today and unfortunately missed out on.

Thanking for reading...

Today was my first experience at Spill the beans. My friends and I often meet up and do paperwork while talking amongst each other, I was very excited to switch it up from our normal establishment and try the coffee and view the space. Upon arriving at spill the beans I purchased a white mocha which was very good. We grabbed a seat and began doing work. A few other college students arrived and began working as well beside us. They had two other friends join them who must have stopped by Starbucks on their way to meet their friends. As the students were working quietly, the Spill the beans employee approached the students and said very rudely, “it is about to be very busy, we need these seats for paying customers. This is a coffee shop and you brought Starbucks in here, you can take it back. I need this space for actual customers.” The students were respectful and stated they were going to purchase coffee and the employee just kept insisting they needed to leave, then walked off. By this time, the entire restaurant was staring because the employee had made a scene. We continued to work while the other students debated on purchasing coffee after the way the employee had spoken to them. ( I personally would not have.) A few minutes pass, a few customers walk through the door and the employee walks back over, more demanding and harsh than the first time telling the students they needed to leave over and over again and that they were not customers due to the fact of not having purchased anything from Spill the beans yet! I was mortified for them. The employee not once asked if they were planning on purchasing any goods from the shop, just repeatedly demanded them to leave. The other students left and my group as well cleaned up after ourselves and left. Before leaving, multiple other customers took out their headphones and grabbed our attention asking what was the employees problem and why was he acting that way. It was very embarrassing. I feel it was very unprofessional and not a fair business practice to handle this situation this way. His delivery was extremely poor and he did not create the atmosphere that has been advertised on social media about this coffee shop. Overall, the coffee is good, the space is beautiful. However, if you don’t plan on ordering a drink as soon as you walk on forget sitting down. As a paying customer today, I feel very bad for the treatment of these students. I hope the employee learns that a kind delivery goes a lot further than...

Atmosphere: 4/5 It has the industrial vibe that seems to suit well, but still feels too monotonous in overall decoration and design. The coffee bar section has nice contrast, that's about it. Okay enough to sit down, not the best compared to other cafes I've been to.

Food: ? I haven't tried their food related items, but they seem to have good ice cream options. Unfortunately, I haven't tried those menus.

Coffee (general audience): 4/5 They seem to have creative ideas. Good enough to grab and go. But nothing too special compared to other cafes that offer special latte menus.

Coffee (aficionados): 1/5 I rated this based on pure espresso shot and cortado. The espresso shot is very underextracted and has no body. There is no proper mouth feel. Rather watery in the texture. They seem to use automatic tamper, but I've not witnessed any proper distribution method. Unfortunately, I didn't take note of the espresso machine they used, but remember them using Nuova Simonelli grinder. Cortado was unfortunate as well. The frothing was improper. Foam on top like a traditional cappuccino, but not frothed throughout - so foam on top and low viscous hot milk on the bottom. I usually expect 1:3 ratio of espresso and frothing, but it seemed quite a higher milk ratio. To give them a bit of leeway, they were super busy. That might have caused lower quality frothing.

Overall, it's an okay place to grab coffee. They have their own...