rev:text
| - The upside - the newly beating heart of downtown Phoenix has an independent coffee shop.
The downside - you feel like you're walking through a hospital hallway. Fluorescent tube lighting, much?
I went to Fair Trade last night after their stalled initial opening attempt a few weeks ago where their outside cart's espresso machine had broken down and I could only get iced tea. No worries on that, though. It happens.
Service was nice, coffee was decent (although not remarkable), and similar pastries as the original location. However, I don't think I'd want to linger inside. Seemed way too antiseptic for a coffeehouse, especially one touting fair trade beans and organic foodstuff. One long wooden table for group study - otherwise a couple steel patio tables adorn alongside the windowed walls. Kind of disappointed, but hopefully it's just a work in progress and they'll be adding more in there.
I like the outdoor patio, though. Nice lit up waterwalls falling into decorative blue rocks, and if you're facing west, you can look up at that giant patient jellyfish (or whatever you want to call it) fluttering in the wind. Nice place to hang, although heading upstairs into Civic Space Park itself is probably nicer.
This location of Fair Trade is also open till 10pm every day - which I'm sure will be greatly appreciated by the ASU crowd (although realistically, students need a coffeehouse open much later).
Decent start, but here's to hoping they improve. 3 stars for now.
|