I am surprised that no one has lauded this place to eat previously.
Wide, varied menu: many kinds of sandwiches, paninis, rollup and burritos, salads, soup of day. Many kinds of teas. Delicious coffees.
It has a moderate noise level, line to take your order and 5 to 15 minute wait for the meal. But the seating is comfortable and the atmosphere pleasant.
I really want to like this place, I really do. It's a cute space, locally owned and in a good location for me. I travel to Waltham from Seattle about every other week and I've given this place several tries, but now I am seeing a consistent pattern of really poor coffee making practices.
I also want to point out that this review is based on service and coffee only, not the food as I've only had a pastry or two.
These are unforgivable sins in the coffee brewing world.
1. Manually turning of the La Marzoco after it pulls a 45 second shot. An Ideal shot is ~18-22 seconds and the machine should finish it on it's own. If your shots are pulling at 45 second ease up on the grind and tamp. I even watched one barista try to pull it without a tamp. HELLO, adjust the grind.
2. Pulling shots into cold, dirty cups. A no-no, please rinse out the shot glass, espresso cup before pulling a fresh shot into it. I don't want to taste someones shot from 3 hours ago.
3. Steaming milk and a way too low temp. Not sure what your rule is on steaming milk, but if I just order the milk is luke-warm at best. A good way to shorten your line quickly but not the correct temp for an espresso drink with steamed milk. Even if I order extra hot, I get a medium warm drink. Milk should be steamed to 190 degrees if ordered extra hot.
4. Pulling 4 shots from one coffee pull. Seriously bad offense, I order 4 shots and she pulls all four from one pull. This is awful and inexcusable.