Monkey Nest Coffee

Stopped for coffee and a muffin.
Great place to work from.

This used to be my favorite local coffee shop do after being away for 4 years I was feeling nostalgic. That faded quickly. Upon entering, no one was in line but the staff, deep in personal conversations, didn't even look up. I noticed the iPad for ordering so thought maybe that's the new system, to avoid face-to-face. Placed my order there, adding my name to it then sat to do some work. I heard them call out 1 name when the order was ready so felt confident they'd call my name when it was ready. After 20 minutes I went up to ask. I stood at the counter for 3-4 minutes before anyone looked up- mind you only 2 of the 4 staff were actually working, the other 2 litteraly just stood still chatting/giggling. The girl asked my name then reached to a shelf on the back wall hand my a cold drink and said nothing. Whatever, I had work to do. I'm glad there were plenty of tables/chairs. The bathroom floors were dirty, with various splash/dirt marks that look like they've not been properly mopped in weeks. So that made me cautious about the general cleanliness of the place. Then I started thinking about how I'd not seen any staff leave the counter in the nearly 2 hours I was there to do any surfaces cleaning or anything and I started feeling dirty and left. Upon leaving one girl did walk outside the counter and she even said "thank you" so salute to her. Overall, it was disappointing but especially so since the cheerful, energetic & friendly vibe I loved this place for for many years is absent.

I actually LOVE monkey nest and the environment...usually. One of my favorite vanilla lattes in town.

I typically will come to this specific coffee shop due to how quiet it usually is, and i enjoy reading while I sip my coffee.

Although today, it was the opposite of this. Not because they were busy, they weren't. It was around 3pm, and all of the employees were either quietly working doing their side work...or standing around at the end of the bar chatting to what looked like an off the clock employee, being loud, and laughing. Especially one employee with very short blue hair, she was walking up and down the bar, yelling and being obnoxiously loud.

This isn't a bar or club, or a regular kitchen where you can be as loud as you want at work....people come here to study, have small conversations with a friend or someone special, or to simply read and get lost.

I don't enjoy wearing headphones because I enjoy the ambience of the sounds a coffee cafe provide.

Prolly will not be coming here anymore as this seems to be happening more and more.

I’ve been coming to this location randomly for years not and I have no complaints. The staff is nice, coffee is yummy, taco was good. Decent wifi, sitting availability, and good space between tables. I only wish there were reusable cups for the water instead of the plastic disposable ones at the moment. 🐒☕️

Nice latte and sandwiches in the city. Good place to work and read as well.

Nice staff and tasty coffee. Lots of room to do work or meet with friends.

Awesome place to catch up or work/study. Great menu for iced and hot drinks, teas, coffees and Italian sodas. Tons of syrup flavors.

I wish it was 24/7 like it was before 2020, the pandemic changed alot of things. Other than that free wifi and great place to study.

Good place to chat, work on a laptop, or read a book, while sipping a coffee drink

Great coffee, great place to work/study

Good coffee shop, but beware if you plan on trying to get work done during the week. It is close to campus and students will come here and talk very loudly.

Great place to relax with a book or laptop. Love their coffee!

Great neighborhood coffee spot to get work done.

Edit 7/22/21 - I've since visited again and per the owners response below, the internet issues do seem to have been resolved, at least for the time being. I had no issues with the wifi connection today, so I'm changing the rating up to 5 stars.

*****

Original Review: June 2021

I want to love this coffee shop, but there's one thing that continues to hold me back: Extremely poor interest connectivity. I come here to get work done, and often my sense of calm and tranquility quickly gives way to frustration and negativity (something the world needs less of) as I'm constantly having trouble loading website or getting disconnected from the network or unable to connect, etc. It drives me bananas, and I'm sure other customers don't appreciate hearing me cursing under my breath about it every two minutes. It's like trying to use dial-up in 2021 ... you can't really blame me. And I know it's not just my machine, as this problem has persisted for me across multiple laptops and across years now. I keep returning thinking this time will be different, since I live in the neighborhood, it's super convenient, and I also like everything else about the place. The baristas are all really friendly, amazing people. I've actually emailed the site/owner in the past to express my disappointment in their internet service, and I believe I may have even offered some suggestions, but to no avail, apparently. I actually was going to include the download speed results from speedtest.net here, but I can't even get the test to load. I therefore rest my case. Other's mileage may vary, but as I said before, this issue has persisted for me across different laptops and over a number of years. If you're planning to get work done over the web you may need to look elsewhere. I'm currently able to post this review from Monkeynest only because I finally decided to tether my laptop to my mobile phone in order to do so, and I don't plan on coming back any time soon. Maybe I'll try Monkeynest again in another year or so and hope things change but will keep my expectations low. Very disappointed.