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| - PROS
local business with quality-over-quantity approach
above average coffee
CONS
regular negative experiences with staff
full of hipsters haha (maybe a plus for you)
[edit 5/2017: I'm glad it was just a phase but I will leave what I wrote. I stop in here and have a better experience these days. [end edit]
I've told the owner (who's awesome) that his staff is so pretentious, inconsiderate, and rude when there are 8 cafes in a 10-block radius. He's a really humble eye-level guy with a great sense of what it means to be human. But his employees... whew! I get it that they took honors in a big NYC "barista" contest, and I get it that its so un-hipster to be warm, friendly, open, accommodating, etc. But I will walk past Commonplace in any weather to go to a nearby cafe where people are real. I actually refuse to go to Commonplace unless people insist on meeting there, in which case i don't buy anything. Last time I was in I was amused by the description of their espresso of the day "notes of chocolate pudding skin. juicy." I can almost hear the targeted bourgeois; "foodies" fresh from a trip to Whole Foods Market, on their way to a delicious ethnic meal in Pgh's only real immigrant neighborhood, stopping in for a quick ristretto and fawning "oh definitely pudding skin!".
Crazy Mocha's coffee really really sucks (like wow).. but you know what I love about stopping in any CM location? The folks behind the counter are able to smile and say something human 9 out of 10 times... there's not a thick layer of pretense or smarmy insecurity to contend with. They aren't caught up in some fiction about how they're too cool to actually relate to other people. And that openness radiates throughout the coffeeshop. Just like the smug tragic-hipster ennui hangs in the air at Commonplace, and attracts a steady stream of hipsters who seem to feel more comfortable in that space.
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