I was reluctant to try the coffee at Rising Star. Who wouldn't be with those communist overtones? But alas, it was 8:00 am and I needed coffee and a bagel to fuel my morning, so I took the plunge.
Already I noticed a troubling omen: there were no sizes. $3 for a nondescript amount of coffee? This could not be good. I ordered my mystery cup of coffee with an everything bagel and cream cheese. Sure it was more expensive than Einsteins's, but that indie charm has to be worth the extra few bucks, right?
What happened next blew my mind. The cashier took an everything bagel out of the display case and just threw it in a paper bag. WITHOUT CUTTING OR TOASTING IT. She then throws in a plastic knife and a small cup of cream cheese. You expect me to cut an untoasted bagel on the counter with a plastic knife and get crumbs and poppy seeds everywhere like an idiot? This place is obviously run by sadists because that is cruel.
The coffee was also presented in a disappointing manner. When you get a paper cup of scalding hot coffee, you expect a paper cozy around the cup so you don't burn your hand off. Rising Star must want to burn my hand off because there was no cozy in sight. I usually like to put milk in my coffee, but Rising Star insisted that that cream was the only choice I should have available.
I haven't even gotten around to how the coffee and bagel tasted. In short, not good. The coffee was somehow sour, lacking that warm satisfying taste that you would find literally anywhere else. The bagel was at least a day old based off of the difficulty to chew it.
In short, the star in the coffee shop's title is the only star this review will include. Unless you're out to prove your indie cred, go somewhere else.