I have had some decent coffee from Peet's stores, but they are essentially what Starbucks was prior to the Super-Auto. If you have a staff that cares about the quality of the drink it will show, if you have people running it like a fast food place it will show. Time will tell how yours will be ran, but it sounds like it more like the later.

At the very least they carry some decent merchandise and you can pick up/look at.

bluesman wrote:I simply can't imagine why so many people spend so much money on this stuff when they could go to one of the local shops no further away from their homes and offices than the swill stations to which they inexplicably flock.

Ordering a straight espresso at Peet's is like ordering fish at a steak house: it's not what they're about. If you want a better experience, order a cup of drip coffee and talk to the cashier or barista about what you like and which they would recommend for you.

Peet's online-only special offerings are spectacular, no matter what your preferences might be. They are quite capable of roasting incredible City roasts. It's a shame that they're not better known for those gems.

IMHO - Shops like Peet's, or Starbucks are the exact reasons why most people say they "dislike coffee" without adding a cup of french vanilla creamer (I used to be like this). I've seen my fair share of people wowed by real quality coffee, It's honestly an amazing thing to witness.

Marshall wrote:Ordering a straight espresso at Peet's is like ordering fish at a steak house: it's not what they're about.

I trust & respect your judgment immensely, Marshall - so you gotta be kidding! Average I could understand. I could live with poor but drinkable. If they can't do better than terrible, they shouldn't offer espresso-based drinks - what they served me today would make a northbound train go south.

The fish at Morton's may not be as good as Milos, but it's far better than McFish.

bluesman wrote:If they can't do better than terrible, they shouldn't offer espresso-based drinks - what they served me today would make a northbound train go south.

The straight shot of espresso is a connoisseur's drink in a world that mostly drinks lattes (with syrup or not) or, like the Italians, puts sugar in it. "Espresso-based" milk drinks is what pays the rent, pays the salaries and keeps the lights on (and the shareholders happy).

All I am saying is that you can get a very good cup of drip coffee at Peet's, and I spent years doing just that, when they were the best shop in Pasadena. Now we have Intelligentsia and Copa Vida, but I do not regret for a minute the many fine cups I had at Peet's.

You are probably correct
The Intelligentsia staff needs to be consistent, then. Serve the water with the coffee,not after the coffee is served or not serve water at all.

Mea culpa! Mea culpa! The newly opened shop on our campus where I got a terrible espresso IS NOT PEET'S - it's a Saxby's store. I glanced over at it as I turned the corner to enter my parking garage this morning and realized my mistake. Although I've never been in a Peet's store, I've passed enough of both around the country to have formed a screen memory of the signage and color schemes. Pete's and Saxby's are similar enough (red-brown tones predominate, with no green in sight...) for me to have blended the two. I've always been a liberal, but I must admit that many coffee chains look alike to me I certainly hope I'm not a closet coffee conservative - I don't do tea parties.

So now I have to try Peet's in fairness. I'll do so and report on my findings.

Oddly enough, I was in a (very nice) Maryland rest stop on my way to DC this weekend and there was Peet's. Now, I guess I should not judge all Peet's on a rest stop version, but it had to be the worst drip coffee I've had in years. Absolute swill. Overextracted, bitter and burnt. It made me avoid all Peet's which appear to be ubiquitous in DC.

[sidenote]the I-95 rest stops in Maryland are like going to an upscale mall now, and I got one of the best grilled veggie sandwiches I ever had at "Earl of Sandwich"[/sidenote]

jfrescki wrote:Oddly enough, I was in a (very nice) Maryland rest stop on my way to DC this weekend and there was Peet's. Now, I guess I should not judge all Peet's on a rest stop version, but it had to be the worst drip coffee I've had in years. Absolute swill. Overextracted, bitter and burnt. It made me avoid all Peet's which appear to be ubiquitous in DC.

I'm beginning to wonder if anyone in major chain coffee cares at all about anything but the quarterly report to shareholders. To leave the quality of your product in the hands of whoever happens to be working at one of your locations seems like a bad business plan to me - yet the big chains with the big names seem to be thriving. There's no consistency at all from store to store in the same chain, and there's no consistency at all from employee to employee in the same store. Maybe the combo of mediocre beans and over-roasting is intentional, to minimize variance.

Here's an interesting quote from Nick Bayer (Saxby's CEO) in an interview done at the grand opening of the Saxby's at Drexel University: ""We compete on people, not on product. Most people think that we are in the product business - we are actually in the people business. I realized that I can compete [with other companies] on people and on hospitality. People are at the core of what we do - our team members and guests." The Drexel store is run entirely by Drexel students, which is unique and really cool. I'll run up there to see how they're doing - but I thought I went to coffee shops at least in part for the coffee. The people are a complement, not a substitute.

In the immortal words of the great sage Huey Lewis, sometimes bad is bad.