Cala Coffee Cahaba Heights — Restaurant in Vestavia Hills

On what was supposed to be a beautiful and sweet snow day, I had the displeasure of getting what seemed purposefully bad service from the barista with the short brown hair. The way she spoke was that of a manager or even owner, but the way she acted said quite different. Me and my mother ordered a drink and pastry each, and when we were immediately given both pastries(a scone and a chocolate croissant) I was a bit taken aback that they were cold. When I asked for the scone to be heated up she rudely asked me ‘it’s going to take a few minutes, are you sure?’ I did want it heated up which I told her, so she took it from me then brought it back less than a minute later lukewarm. We ate the croissant with solid hard chocolate in the middle without it being heated up. (I’ve never had a chocolate croissant that wasn’t heated without me asking) Turns out all she was doing was microwaving them, which begs the question why it was so hard to do for me. I was willing to look past this, grateful they were even open, but then as at least two other people ordered pastries she offered with a smile to heat them up. Then came the 10+ minute wait for 2 lukewarm hot chocolates. At first again I gave them the benefit of the doubt, but after I watched several people who had ordered after us receive their drinks and the short haired barista would not look me in the eye, I realized the bad service was on purpose. As someone who does everything I can to support small businesses-especially those in my neighborhood- I cannot fathom how a small business with limited customers for the day could be so careless with their customer service. I’m disappointed, and hope the brown haired barista takes a look at her behavior, figures out why she treated us the way she did and finds a kinder path to move forward. Especially if she plays any sort of managerial role in that...

I’ve been wanting to try this place out since I saw BhamNow post it on their instagram and I finally got to try it today! It’s a cute little spot, but beware Google Maps tries to take you through the Post Office’s private roads to get here, don’t do that. Cala Coffee was pretty busy for a Wednesday morning with about 10 cars having to park out on the street. The inside is super cute and simply decorated. Not too loud either! Looks like a great study space. I was trying to do no sugar this week, but they only had one sugar-free flavoring, Vanilla, and I wasn’t super pumped about that. So I fudged and got a hot maple + sea salt latte which is pretty fantastic! I believe Annie was the girl that rang up my order and she was super sweet. They put my order on the counter without a lid and I got to see the cute little heart-shaped design they made on the top, it was the perfect touch! I would definitely love to come back here :) Good job Cala, but maybe invest in more sugar...

Not the worst coffee shop I’ve ever been to but it’s not spectacular. Wait was fairly long (30 minutes between me walking in the door and receiving my coffee) and they made my order wrong (matcha instead of espresso.) They did offer to and quickly remade the order, but the honey cinnamon latte wasn’t well-balanced. The atmosphere is lacking- decor is nonexistent and most of the seating consists of backless stools, which aren’t ideal for reading or working. The chairs that did have backs were low and plastic. Food options were extremely limited to only being able to order a croissant. The place has great natural lighting and a lot of potential to be a good coffee spot (the espresso itself was great quality) but I won’t be going out of my way to go here again anytime soon. The wait was too long for this to be a convenient place to get coffee to-go, and the interior wasn’t somewhere I would want to go if I were planning on hanging...