This was my first stop on my day of exploring if I'd enjoy living in Cleveland if I had to move here. I used to visit Cleveland often when I was a kid with my family, but it's different now... But as long as there's good coffee I think I'd probably survive.
Rising Star was great. I had really great espresso here that I truly enjoyed with really intensely acidic fruity crema. Like, I totally had an a-ha moment here. It was served with sparkling water, which I had never seen before, so good job Cleveland.
The only part of my experience here I didn't like was that I felt slightly condescended to? Overexplaining when I asked simple y/n questions and made comments, but for the most part not on purpose and friendly. Didn't love the occasional hipster-in-the-making on Mount Stupid trying to show off his coffee snobbery either, but I suppose those are all too typical growing pains for any city.
If you can overlook that small detail, this is a great little shop in a quiet strip of town that I really enjoyed. Tables are small for work imo, but people were making it work. I heard there's a waffle guy sometimes...