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| - While bumming around Little Italy waiting for a table at La Dolce Vita (see 2 star La Dolce Vita review), my friends and I decided to pop in at Fuel coffee bar. Knowing it was going to be a "hip" place (all the cool places have one word names right?) and seeing the gigantic rainclouds overhead, we took our chances.
I walk in and immediately I'm lovin' it. Remember that this place used to be a pretty mediocre convenient store, but it has been transformed into a really one-of-a-kind coffee bar. I'm saying coffee bar because there's an actual bar surrounding the drink creation area. I was giggling the whole time at the "fuel" theme, which reminds me of a gas station 99 cent coffee blend (cough cough Sheetz). I ordered the iced fuel, while my friends got the fuel of the day. My friends enjoyed their hot fuel while I was delightfully surprised at how smooth the iced fuel was.
Here's the dealbreaker, folks. When you go into other little independently owned coffee shops, there's usually half-n-half, sugar, Splenda, stirrers, and that's just about it. NOT HERE. CONDIMENTS GALORE. You can add syrups FOR FREE in your beverage, choose from 5 different sweeteners....or even more(?), add half-and-half or whole milk, and powder up your beverage to perfection with chocolate or cinnamon. Having a myriad of add-ins allows for my beverage to be ~perfect~.
The seating area is very intimate and cozy. The bar seats up to 3 people and the shop seats about 10, which is really neat when you want to clamp down and read a book, but can be a huge bummer when there is open mic night. That being said, we visited Fuel during a high schooler's "my first open mic" experience, where she played covers of awful mid 2000s soft rock songs. New Shoes by Paolo Nutini and You're Beautiful by James Blunt anyone? No thank you. We were stuck in this odd situation similar to a coffee shop purgatory, where some of us sat down 5 feet away from her, and others stood from afar. There came a point where we all realized that we much rather sit outside in the light rain at this point than handle another 20 minutes of acoustic covers.
In short, excellent coffee, really relaxed and comfy atmosphere, just avoid open mic nights if you want to converse with your friends.
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