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| - This is a decent coffee shop smack in the middle of the happening area of Shadyside. The coffee is not the best in town; it would get 3 stars from me if you consider only coffee quality. They also serve pastries, yogurt, other drinks, and most importantly for me a good variety of all natural oatmeal. They sell coffee and coffee accessories, have free wifi, a reasonable number of electrical outlets, and all the good things a decent coffee shop should have. And, the baristas have always been polite, sometimes even chatty.
What is great about CTR-Walnut is the large sitting area with a high ceiling where they pull up the "garage" window when the weather is reasonably nice. Fresh air comes in continuously, and you can enjoy sipping your coffee and getting some work done while watching people pass by on the sidewalk of Walnut Street and in the coffee shop. In fact, that is exactly what I am doing right now. The coffee shop shines especially during the summer, as a result of the open-air seating in the sitting area close to the sidewalk.
Evenings and weekends can get very crowded and finding a seat in the best parts of the shop can be problematic. The back side of the coffee shop is much less exciting at least for me: not as much fresh air and a low ceiling. Although, they do have a fireplace and seemingly cozy couches in the gray area between the back and the front, which I assume would be great for conversation on a cold winter day with the right set of friends.
That they are open relatively late (until midnight) is a plus... If you consider that late, of course. But you will have to make do with it since the tacit rule in Pgh seems to be "thou shall not keep a coffee shop open after midnight" even around college campuses where you are almost guaranteed to get reasonable business if you do a good job. Now, imagine the chutzpah if somebody changed that...
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