Please 'scuze my French in this review but I am pissed off.
Cool cafes are hard to come by in the Valley. Tempe's Gold Bar is one of them and it's been here a long time. I go back a long ways with this one, having spent many late nights studying for the bar exam here.
The fucking assholes who own Starbucks, knowing this place's popularity, decided to plant one of their cancer-like franchise locations in the very same plaza, just 10-20 yards away. An obvious attempt by a boring, uncreative national franchise to bully a local favorite out of business.
Boycott this location, please.
I think the local favorite gets the last laugh though. As I drove by the Starbucks in amazement at their hostile choice of location, it looked totally devoid of customers to me. The Gold Bar however is packed, and I had to sit at an outside table in the cold for 20 mins before a single chair inside freed up. There's a live jazz band playing at the moment. Life is good. Fuck you, Starbucks.