Wednesday, November 12, 2008

The KooKoo Cafe leaves the "KooKoo" to be desired.

Our class with Dan Kennedy had us visit, review, and then map out coffee shops around the Northeastern area in Boston all onto one interactive coffee map. The map allows its users to to view a photo of the coffee shops storefront, their hours of operation, along with their price for a regular cup of coffee. 

I visited the KooKoo Cafe in Brookline and had what one could call an over-the-top experience that did not end so well. 

The shop immediately reminded me of the "I'm so hip and trendy/even if the coffee is terrible you love me because I'm cool, and organic" ambiance that one typically encounters in West Hollywood, Los Angeles. The owners, who also own the Yoga studio next door (duh!) attempt at a holistic and feng-shui type appeal that at first seems comfortable but soon becomes irking as the pretentious cappuccino drinkers emerge. It doesn't help that their chicken salad is really tofu and the rest of the menu is vegetarian, another LA type idea that don't fly too high where it gets cold and people [like me] NEED meat [to stay warm].

As I took my jacket off and sat down with a syrupy and bitter latte that left a terrible after-taste my hand brushed against their rustic looking stucco wall, it should should have had a "caution" sign. The way the wall was designed had so much friction that when the back of my hand lightly made contact it tore into my knuckles and cut me open, there was blood and it was not pleasant. Luckily one of the baristas after waiting for several minutes emerged with a few band-aids to quell the cuts and was relatively nice and apologetic about the experience. 

The manager or owner on the other hand who had been standing behind the counter the entire time made no attempt to help make my experience in the cafe any better and instead would direct sneers and annoyed looks in my direction, thanks asshole.

So here's my ratings, 5 stars being the best, 1 being the worst:

Coffee: 2 Stars
Ambiance: 4 Stars, but fades quickly to 2 after the wall tore me up!
Price: 3 Stars, seems an average price for a cup of coffee
Hospitality: 2 Stars, organically inclined hippies they should have been nicer!



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