Honeybee Coffee Co. — Restaurant in Tennessee

Second Time Was Much Better After having a bad 1st impression, I decided to try again in case I just got bad employees the 1st time. As it turns out I was right the employees I encountered the 1st time were terrible. The 2nd time I went there during the day and the two employees I encountered were very friendly and very courteous and professional. I had a latte to go, and it was very tasty but the to go cup was rather small. That was the only negative thing I encountered the 2nd time was the to go cup was too small, especially for the price. So due to a better impression the second visit, with much more friendly and courteous, as well as professional employees I will probably try this place again. I believe in 2nd chances and this place definitely earned another try.

FIRST VISIT - NOT IMPRESSED! Had passed this place a couple times in the last few weeks and thought I would give it a try. I live about 20 minutes away and even though it was rather far I thought would give this new business a try. One evening I told a friend to meet me there so he and I can have a coffee and a discussion. I looked up their address online and saw that it said they were also open until 9:00 p.m. I got there at around 7:30pm, I noticed the place had few people in it as I walked in. I told the person at the front counter that I would be getting a table and I was waiting for a friend. He told me the place was about to close for some private event. There was no sign on the door announcing this private gathering nor were any of the other other customers getting up to leave for this so called private event.

I waited for my friend to get there for another 5 minutes or so and of course the same people that were in their enjoying their coffee were still there nor did any large group show up for a private event.

As a former business owner I try to support my local business community, especially new ones.

It was obvious to me that the individual who working there was being less than forthright and even though I told him that I was trying this place for the 1st time made no effort to try to make a good impression on a new, potential customer . Most people also don't patronize a business where the workers have bad attitudes such as the individual I encountered.

As a result of this negative, 1st impression, I will no longer consider this place, and when my friends ask me what I thought of it I will share my experience with them. Not the way that I would run my businesses, when I was trying to attract...

After reading the great reviews, I came to this location at Turkey Creek. Parking was very difficult. I ended up parking alongside the street perpendicular to the store. Walked in and was captivated by the fantastic interior. It looked fresh, clean and modern- you don't see that too often in West Knoxville. The baristas were friendly. It was pretty busy inside; the usual hipsterish/student coffee shop crowd with people on laptops...it felt more like Portland, Oregon, than Knoxville. And that is not always a good thing, in this case. I lived in San Diego most of my life. Then Portland. I was hoping to get away from that 'coffee shop attitude' you have in the big cities...., and I encountered that with the owner by observing him a bit while we were there. He was constantly sitting at the bar- sort of being there to, I guess, control things- but then not really doing anything within the scope of managing the restaurant. I have managed several restaurants and coffee shops, so I was a bit overtaken by that. Our drink order was wrong. My friend said it was ok- and we took it. Then I had to wait quite a long time for my drink while my friend had hers. Then, there finally was a table and we had to ask for it to be cleaned (while another guy was just standing around- the female and male at the counter were doing all the work). The friendly younger guy (who was also making drinks at the same time!) cleaned it for us. So him and the girl were basically doing everything while the owner was just 'hanging out.' So, that was a little off-putting. The owner would go behind the bar, then walk back to his Audi, and then go back at sitting at the bar (without a mask on the whole time, even though he has signs everywhere that state that a mask needs to be worn to interact with the baristas). Not really a friendly feeling from him. If I were the owner I would be less complacent. Go help clean a table. Jump in with the staff if there is a line. Walk around and acknowledge people. That gives a more welcoming atmosphere. Yes, they have excellent coffee, but good representation by the owner goes with that. If you run a place, you need to like coffee just as much as enjoying the people that visit your place. I really am not waiting for the same type of attitude that you get in Southern California and Portland. Thats why we moved to Knoxville. Was hoping for more Southern...

Picked the Honeybee on our way out of town because we’d been to another one in Richmond and enjoyed our coffee. This was definitely not the same experience. Quality control and training is a big miss here!!! We did an order ahead through their square app. Two drinks- not complicated- Americano with and extra shot and a cold brew extra shot + creamer

We waited several minutes past the committed time for curbside, went it to check on the order and the barista said “oh yeah, I saw an order come in but I didn’t write it down”. His co- worker proceeded to address his inept attitude about following the process for mobile orders. Shortly they hand my husband two coffees which he quickly realized do not look correct (obviously no creamer in the cold brew) at which time the staff responded with “we don’t have any”. No options- except whole milk.

Off we go - down the road with no creamer and then I dare sip my Americano assuming it’s now at a suitable temp. To my surprise, it’s a sweet syrupy flavored coffee. Remove the double cup and guess what? “Maple Coffee”

Two for two - epic FAIL HONEYBEE

Coffee is still quality but clearly misses on many levels of service. 1. We didn’t get what we ordered. 2. We had to go into the busy coffee shop instead of curbside 3. Barista was unapologetic and dismissive of his responsibilities. Although Barista #2 was trying to resolve the issue quickly she failed again by giving us the wrong coffees and surely this resulted in other patrons getting the wrong coffees,...