anecdotal cafe reviews, coffeeshop reports, and coffee musings

tableaux'd by: Loren

I’ve actually visited this coffeehouse (honestly I had just had a cuppa at Joe’s and was driving around and decided I had to use their restroom). So I bought a Cafe Latte for myself and Cafe Mocha for my mother while waiting for a our drinks to be prepared and after “my relief” I stood around with my hands in my pockets circling the whole room with my eyes. This place felt more like a futuristic Arcade than a coffeehouse. Neon Blues, Oranges, and Greens was the theme that was reflected throughout the space with the furniture. When you approach the counter, there’s this huge negative space between the furniture and the counter. So it’s feels like I stepped on stage to order a drink. There’s all this space; they could’ve added way more furniture (not to mention serve more customers) to give it a more “cozy” effect. The soft-spoken mono-syllabic barista mumbled a “hi” and stood there waiting as if I was a regular and already knew what I wanted to order. I didn’t feel like she was willing to be helpful whatsoever. I looked up at the menu and noticed the very limited menu. No wonder she just stood there. Not much to offer! I tried to create convo by saying “So.. who’s your roaster ?” No answer. “Is it Batdorf or Intelligentsia or something?” mumbles with a shoulder shrug “Umm ok… well cool ” Its not like divulging that information is the equivalent of a McDonald’s French Fry trade secret. But I get the feeling she had no clue as to what I was referring to.

As my mother and I got in the car, in unison, we took sips from our drinks and exchanged disgusted looks as if we ourselves made the drinks for each other. It was absolutely horrible!

So the ambiance was horrible along with its coffee. I hope they catch these issues in time because they have a pretty cool location and a lot of potential in a space like that. Ambiance and product quality are the most important factors here.

E2 Coffeehouse

749 Moreland Avenue, Suite 101A
Atlanta, Georgia 30316
http://www.e2coffeehouse.com

j.h. trefry
December 7th, 2006
at 1:03 pm

There seems to be a growing trend in Atlanta coffee establishments, mostly with the newbies, of posting misleading information on their webpages in regards to the hours their establishments are open (see Sweet Java Brown). This is both an offshoot and a subsymptom of a larger problem in Atlanta, that being the notion that coffeeshops should not be open into the evening. There are a couple of older more established shops that have not been reviewed here for just such a reason, although these new ones with their discrepancies have incited me to discuss the issues in their space. I believe coffee drinking, in a public forum, to be an evening activity. The ideal character of a coffee establishment being lowlit and cozy, womblike, librarylike, does not lend it to perform well as a space in daytime. I am reminded of walking by bars with their doors open in midafternoon in New Orleans or Athens, they smell wrong in the daylight and their sleaziness is aesthetically misaligned with the sun. So too with the coffeeshop. Also, most people have their free time in the evenings, that is when they choose to invest in such luxurious activities as taking a coffee. People who have the time to sit in coffeeshops in the mornings are assholes, and if you are merely popping in for a cup on your way to work you are better off drinking a press of fresh organic Ethiopian from your stove.

Seeing the closed sign on E2 in its fine bourgeois little enclave on what was very recently a harrowing stretch of Moreland Avenue only succeeded in reminding me of the continued infancy of the web using public who cannot keep their business information up to date and rearousing within me the distaste for the idle freelance parvenues who lounge outside of sterile establishments such as E2 without a care in the world. Perhaps we will happen upon it on a Saturday evening when it is actually open during the hours it perpetrates and have fodder for a more developed tableau.