Blue Bottle Coffee — Restaurant in Washington

Summary:

So I’ve visited this place a few times after the Starbucks store was removed for safety concerns. I’m not big on going to a shop that doesn’t have customer service in line with pricing — Starbucks isn’t Austrian prestige blueBottle, but it sure had a better attitude and atmosphere overall. The coffee is what you’d expect as long as everyone behind the counter knows what they’re doing. SB dark roast is a no-no, but a tepid medium roast from someone who lacks courtesy, I’d prefer taking the French Dark Roast from the casual SB place because at least they acknowledge you unlike an automaton, and deserve the regular 50% tips given regardless.

Service: It isn’t the best. Very robotic and snobbish. I’ve had a few lucky times where the baristas were courteous and taught me something new about the products they serve. The tips are well deserved. Ive hoped to see their faces again— it feels good support the efforts of genuinely good people and brightening up their day with some extra cash. Customer service jobs are notoriously hard, you’d expect blue bottle to attract a certain breed so it would be ‘less’ hard.

But alas— how is a superior chain still in service with cattiness and bad manners?

Atmosphere: Compared to the other stores within Union station, it’s the cleanest. There are no signs to direct in which direction the line to the register should go, so when two people come up to the corner, either you take the lead and you become the lucky customer, or you end up circling around the wall to wait a few more minutes to be served.

It’s good that this wall is farther away from the homeless people who like to hang out within the train terminal side of the station. Bluebottle is the shining light in comparison to the dirty floors, seats, and depressing mood having to maneuver around vulnerable people.

Food: The almond and chocolate croissants are delicious and crispy. I just hate being handed one that isn’t warmed. Why would anyone want a stale croissant? And the Hot chocolate is creamy with the right balance of sweetness and flavor. I may come back for more and learn more about the ingredients if any of the employees are willing to share secrets, or are...

One of those experiences where you’re shocked by the customer service (as someone who worked in it for 15 years). I ordered a coffee and a few other things- when I checked out I asked “how much is the drip coffee” and the person said “6.60.” This surprised me as drip coffee in dc is about 3.75 after tax. I sat down to drink it and looked up the costs for that location and it was 5 dollars for a pour-over. To be totally honest I think they should differentiate the cost at this blue bottle since they don’t do pour-over but that’s neither here nor there. I then heard the person next to me saying they had paid 6.60 also. So I went back to the register and asked the same person why if the coffee is listed as 5 dollars had they charged me 6.60- first they told me that 6.60 was the cost of the five dollar coffee with tax and I pointed out that DC food tax is not 30%, then they told me it wasn’t them (it was), then they said “I don’t understand what this interaction is”, then they told me that they didn’t say 6.60 and promised me I was just wrong. Then they could never find my order after looking for five minutes but I’ve used cash registers - it’s fairly easy to find with a name, card and total- particularly one placed in the last 15 minutes. Since it was taking so long, some else told me they could just refund me after I left- that hasn’t happened and my total is over the amount it should be with tax. I get that it’s a small amount but the problem is that this person seems to consistently be charging this amount and...

We stopped by for espresso drinks before our long train ride. Like most who are at Union Station we had a time limit before having to board. There was zero urgency by the three staff members here. There was no one in line, only one other person on the other side waiting for a drink, and we were standing at the register. All three saw us standing and we had no acknowledgement. Two of them were doing nothing while the other was making a drink, and no one would come to the register to take our order.

We finally ordered and were waiting on our drinks. They already sent out the one order ahead of us, so ours would be next. We waited at least 5 minutes for 2 lattes to be made. I’ve been a barista for years, and it should never take that long unless you’re training.

Our orders finally came out and it wasn’t even our orders… We paid extra for the specialty latte and got a plain latte. They spent all that time to not even be making the specialty latte.

I travel through Union station a lot and frequent this spot, and every time there’s an issue with service being extremely slow and inattentive. Unless your train is delayed and you have time to spare, I’d...