Brewed Awakening — Restaurant in Westmont

My wife and I are looking for a good local coffee shop, so we visited here recently to try it out. We ordered a white mocha and a short cappuccino, and the quality of what was served was so bad, I feel I need to make this review as constructive as possible. For starters, the white mocha did not have coffee in it. I'm not sure if the barista just forgot, but it was simply syrups and steamed milk, which is not a mocha. As for the milk steaming, the barista re-steamed milk which is a very bad idea. Both of our drinks were very watery because steam is made of water. If you repeatedly add more steam to the same milk, it waters down the milk and makes for a thin, bland drink. Re-steaming is also dangerous from a food safety perspective because the milk was left in the pitcher before and after making our drinks, presumably leaving milk in the danger-zone of food temperature for extended periods of time. The steaming pitcher used was far too large for making a 12 oz drink. It is much easier to create proper micro-foam and a rich texture with an appropriately sized pitcher. On top of that, the barista added more milk in the middle of steaming which is very poor technique. Also, a few aggressive blasts of bubble-making does not lead to a good milk drink. The point of steaming milk rather than just heating it on the stove is to create a well-integrated micro-foam that is silky in texture, not make a few bubbles that float around. Even worse, instead of cleaning the pitcher and using fresh milk, the barista re-steamed the excess milk for the mocha to make the cappuccino. Just adding some bubbles on top of watered-down hot milk does not make a cappuccino, and even then there were only a few bubbles. Finally, and I shouldn't have to say this, but always wipe down the steam wand and purge it before and after every single drink. This is such an easy step, and it is inexcusable to skip it. Moving on to the espresso, I do not remember hearing the grinder, but since you have one, I can assume the beans were ground earlier in the day. Espresso grind is very fine, so pre-grinding means it quickly oxidizes and loses a lot of flavor, leading to weak, bland coffee. It should always be ground to order, no exceptions. The espresso shot pulled way too fast, and what was poured into my cup looked watery and had no crema. This generally means the grind is too coarse and the resulting espresso is weak and sour. I don't expect everyone to have perfect espresso, but just from watching it, this wasn't even close and the resulting taste backed up my suspicions. To wrap this up, our drinks tasted watery, stale, and very cheap. As a former barista who is married to a barista, I can say from experience that essentially every step in drink preparation was done incorrectly and sloppily. Regardless of whether it is from laziness or ignorance, it is unacceptable to charge nearly specialty coffee shop prices for coffee that might as well have come from a hotel cappuccino machine. There is a wealth of information on the internet from experts like James Hoffman on how to properly steam milk, dial-in espresso by taste, and how to make traditional espresso drinks. Please take some time to learn the basics and buy the appropriate equipment, because the current product...

I usually love coming here for coffee and to study, it’s been a go-to spot for me. Unfortunately, my experience has me considering never coming back to this location again. I had an interaction with a staff member (didn’t catch his name, but he’s bald with tattoos) who seemed to be having a very difficult day and made sure everyone else knew it too. All I ordered was a regular latte, nothing complicated, but he was rolling his eyes at me like I asked for something outrageous, it was a very theatrical performance for a coffee shop worker taking an order (which I assume is just a standard part of his job.) From the way he was speaking to me as well as the man who ordered before me you’d think we did something terrible to offend him, however the terrible thing we did to him was come in while he was working I guess!

When it was time for me to pay, I didn’t hear what he said—I thought he was just giving me the total so I started pulling out my money. Instead of repeating himself or clarifying, he just stared at me and then loudly said, “Guess not! Your total is $7,” in the most unnecessary tone. It was honestly so embarrassing and people were staring. I said I didn’t hear him, and he just rolled his eyes again and slowly repeated “your. total. is. seven. dollars,” like I was a child. It honestly ruined the whole thing for me so much that I just left after grabbing my drink and didn’t even stay to do my work like I’d planned. Being an adult (especially a grown man) usually comes with some baseline social skills. If working in customer service is too emotionally draining, perhaps it’s time to explore other options that bring you more joy—or at least don’t involve interacting with the public! We all have bad days, but as adults it’s expected that we are mature enough to leave that at home, especially when you are at work. Seems like this is unfortunately his every day personality as there are multiple bad reviews about him. 40-something year old man with the personality of a pms-ing teenage girl— how...

All the reviews here are correct, after reading a bunch this morning I decided to come try it for myself. The owner is kind and customer service is good. Muffins are wonderful. The one I had was chocolate chocolate, crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside. Latte was hot and flavor of the coffee is more on the burnt side which is good for some people and bad for others. They do use styrofoam cups which everyone seems to be complaining about. Be sure to ask for the wifi password if you want to get some work done here!

Basically this is what I would describe as the quintessential Chicago suburbs neighborhood coffee shop. Charming in ways only Chicago suburbs can be.

On a Saturday at 10:30 am, there was parking on the street (I walked about 50 feet), seats inside, but it was also coffee shop volume. Prime seats were taken by regulars and visitors but there was seating available. The correct level of busy for me!!

Photos on the wall signed of David Bowie, Enuff Znuff, Craig Pro, etc with guitars and photos of rock groups and people from the...