My brother just called me up from spruce street espresso in phili. My parents live in on Long Beach Island, NJ, and when i go home for the holidays we have been to NY and Phili for espresso. I've always missed chesnut hill because they were closed or a little bit out of the way. I'll give them a shot this christmas.

Anyway, browsing for spruce street on the internet, i ran across their blog. I found a response there to goldlyone's (Ilya's) post in this thread. I'm impressed that they care enough to respond to Ilya's review. Unfortunately, it's on their blog, and not here in this thread, so i've copied and pasted their response. (please forgive me, Faith, but since you copied Ilya's review over there i didn't think you'd mind). So, below is spruce street's response to Ilya's review:

Apparently we did not meet his espresso satisfaction or good customer service... for that I'm apologizing. A second shot should've been offered up. Since I'm not sure which one of my baristas was behind the bar when this happened I am putting out an open invitation to Ilya/godlyone to come back to Spruce Street Espresso and have a macchiato or espresso on us. I'm not sure were communication went wrong, but I want Ilya/godlyone and everyone to know that Spruce Street takes this seriously and we want people to always leave with a smile on their faces ;o)

Needless to say, i'm very impressed. One of the reasons we all love espresso is that we never reach perfection - we're always improving. To see this sentiment expressed by a coffee shop is encouraging and I have high hopes for a visit this christmas.

I ran across that blog post the other day and was impressed as well. I tried to make a point to make it out there again when I was down in the city last weekend but didn't have the time. Next time I'm down there I will for sure.

Funny story, I was at a cupping at Ultimo Coffee and Aaron asked me where else I tried CCC and after I told him about my experience at spruce st... he goes "oh, you're that guy" so apparently my review made quite the rounds among CCC providers lol. Ultimo coffee btw is another GREAT place in philly (center city) to get delicious espresso.

The funny thing is faith was the one who served me the espresso and treated me the way I wrote about above. I appreciate the apology on her blog, maybe she didnt remember that it was her who served the coffee.

Honestly, I don't think I'll be going there anytime soon just because it's kind of out of the way from where I live.

But I do appreciate her apology and definitely shows that they care about their customer service

godlyone wrote:I have been using chestnut hill espresso blend and getting absolutely delicious espresso.
?

As in north Philly Chestnut Hill Coffee? I go there for coffee when I run out of home roast. They are only 8 miles from where I work. If you are there and they have the 'Red Beard' blend, try it out. It is a Sumatran/Guatemalan blend. Reminds me of chocolate fruit loops. Chocolaty with a somewhat nondescript fruity/berry flavour.


...merged with topic on same subject from When to Stop HX Flush...

Yup that's the one!

Dave, i think after your move we are close neighbors lol

godlyone wrote:Yup that's the one!

Dave, i think after your move we are close neighbors lol

I would not call New York close. Still a two hour drive to Manhattan. You must have a horrible commute or take the rail to work every day. I am in West Conshohocken for work. One of the big towers right off Fayette St on the river.

I go to medical school in east falls, so I'm about 10 min or so from chestnut hill

Haven't had a good shot of Chestnut Hill roast yet but am looking forward to trying their wares some day. Don't get out to Chestnut Hill very often but I might phone in an order if they would provide at least a price list and a description of their roasts on the website.

I appreciate the care that Chestnut Hill puts into their espresso...but I don't really like their "house blend". To me, it's got flavor notes that make me think of "salty" and "leathery"...not what I want in my cup.

The "Red Beard" blend sounds interesting. I'll look for it the next time I'm there, but since I home-roast, it's rare to get anything other than their house blend as a drink on site.

On [rare] occassions I've convinced them to sell me green beans, and I've been very happy with their Costa Rican COE bean. Unfortunately, the roaster isn't typically in the shop on weekends, and they don't seem to be completely set up to handle green bean sales when he's not around.