Urban Grounds

Urban Grounds is a go to place when I need a quick bite to eat. The panini sandwiches are great especially the Cuban! It’s so tasty. It comes with chips and a pickle. The latte’s are great here. The furniture is an collection of mixed mix-​and-​match pieces that go well together. There is always people studying or having a private conversations just. There is a private single stall bathroom. There usually is a parking spot in front, which is always a convenience. They have a few pastries on hand which are very taste. Wifi offered of course.

This is a good, solid neighborhood coffee shop! They serve one of my favs: Intelligentsia Coffee and the staff is down-​to-​earth (read: not snooty). The wifi is consistent and they have plenty of work room.

Went here a couple of days ago to study for a little while (free wi-​fi! woot). Ordered some coffee, pretty good. I’m not a crazy coffee drink kind of gal, but they had different brews available, I went with the medium and it was pretty smooth. They seem to have a lot of different flavors and offer all the fancy drinks. Quite a few people popped in to order food to take out with them, so I might have to try them for lunch one day while studying. Plenty of seating options for a little coffee spot. 2-​seat tables, a few larger tables, and some couches. Patio as well. Service was a little lacking, but I’m pretty sure the kid was just bored. Weren’t too many customers in there at the time. Double check the hours. What I found online does not match up to what they have posted on the door.

SUMMARY= Good food and coffee, don’t miss the salted caramel cookie, skip the smoothies, good seating (HURRAY FOR CLEAN, COMFY COUCHES!!!), free Wi-​Fi that works well, adequate number of outlets.
FOOD= Ordered bacon/​egg/​cheese on croissant and the banh mi. Breakfast sandwich was tasty. Banh mi was particularly good; large serving and fresh ingredients. Super-​duper amazing winner, however, was the salted caramel cookie. Outrageously good.
DRINKS= Ordered latte and smoothie. Latte was solid. The smoothie, however, was too watery and had the rather sickly flavor of added syrup rather than pure fruit.
ATMOSPHERE= Here’s where this place hits the spot for me. It has good seating options, including two comfy, clean couches and a couple tables. It’s enough to seat 12 persons adverse to cuddling. More seating is outside on a pretty, uncovered patio. Parking in front of the café. Very quiet music, so it’s a good place to study while retaining the lax background beats. I add major style points for well-​placed outlets and good, free Wi-​Fi. The place is chill, not hipstery. My only complaint on the atmosphere was that it was literally chill. I had to go to my car and get a jacket and a blanket for my partner. It was OK because he looks supercute wrapped in penguin blankies, but still.
SERVICE= Friendly, but not very knowledgable about the menu. Please encourage the staff to sample the food, managers.
SUGGESTIONS= Management, please consider adding a power strip for the couch area. And save some money on that AC, guys!

The coffee was a little burnt in taste. Nice inside and interesting extras in the shop. People were very friendly. Good place to stop in and relax. Haven’t tried any food.

So I’ve become a little disenchanted with Unilocal recently and this local gem is a great example of why. First and foremost the coffee is excellent and while the décor might not be the ‘Central Perk’ atmosphere that people come to expect these days, it is a quintessential neighborhood coffee shop with good beans. The service was friendly and fast and the furniture was charming in a retro kind of way: a canary yellow vinyl-​ish couch. This place managed to pull it off.
The pastries didn’t look super fresh, but still tasty.
Bottom line: don’t let Unilocal stars govern every decision. You’ll be missing out!

A revisit to the coffee shop revealed that the coffee was delicious and they seem to have cleaned up some. The barista was nice and skilled, certainly more skilled than previous barista encounters here. The place could still use a deep clean.

First impressions this morning… service was not great, especially by male employee. They weren’t busy, so that wasn’t it. Not sure. Maybe he’s just having a bad dAy, but I had to take pause and considered leaving. Really.

I was going to take a picture but it looked so good and I ate it so fast I completely forgot! First time at this little place and I was pleasantly surprised. The staff were friendly and the panini and chai tea was delicious. I’ll def be coming back!

I’ve driven by this place several times but only today did I make the brilliant decision to stop in and grab a bite to start my day. On a Saturday morning, I expected the place to be packed like everyplace else in atlanta, but not here. A few patrons who looked like «regulars» and two warm and welcoming employees behind the counter.
The coffee here is great! Plus they have almond and coconut milk available for nondairy alternatives besides soy. For breakfast I went with a bagel sandwich that hit the spot. They have great coffee, tasty food (I see what the hype is about the Jewish deli style bagels… they rock!), a lot of space and friendly staff and regulars. The only thing that could make the aesthetic experience better would be some fresh throw pillows for the comfy couches (or they could just get rid of the ratty looking ones)…but you’ll easily forget all about the pillows when you settle down into the urban grounds vibe.

Decent coffee, but rude service. The lady who served us was very impatient while we decided what to order, which took all of 30 seconds for our first time and there was no one in line behind us. It’s a shame since it could be a great little coffee place.

If you are picky about your coffee, this is the place. They serve Intelligentsia exclusively and I’ve found no other brand I like best. They always have a dark, medium and decaf blend on tap. I dream about this coffee aroma and now have resorted to buying their beans because I am totally hooked. They have a special sandwich the Ban mi which is worth it, and giant homemade cookies that are awesome. They carry authentic Jewish deli bagels which are always very good. Some of the other things like smoothies and paninis are a little too pricey but they are always good quality if I just gotta have it. This place puts Avondale Estates on the map! We don’t need no Starbucks here.

Urban Grounds is everything that you want in a coffee shop– coffee, espresso. smoothies, salads, paninis, and pastries! It’s so cute, small and quaint but not overcrowded, has a covered patio and free wifi!
I’ve heard great things about this place for a while and never went in until today. Today was the day I was craving a change of coffee instead of my normal home brewed, Starbucks or Dunkin’ Donuts brewed coffee. So glad I stopped in today as I am officially having the best day ever because of it! They have cold brewed coffee! Hallelu! It’s one of my favorites and it’s rare that coffee shops in Atlanta has it as an option. For some reason, having cold brewed iced coffee tastes much better than hot coffee or espresso poured over ice. They are open during the most perfect hours from 6:00 until 10:00 pm. I let the cashier/​owner know that it was my first time in and immediately she told me that any and everything can be iced (LOVE it!), what flavors can be mixed in, and even welcomed me to Urban Grounds! What great customer service in such a great place! I’ll definitely be back to try all the other options on the menu and do some work while I’m there.

I like this place, the staff is really friendly and helpful. It is more artsy and unique then a chain. Coffee tastes great, I love it because the other coffee shops around Decatur are always waaaaaaay to crowded and there is no where to sit. Today, this place was out of cookies and they actually offered (and did) bake one just for me. Dang! That is customer service folks. Sometimes the internet is a bit slow but overall I like this place a lot.

I love this place! It’s always got great coffee that’s fairly priced. The staff is also very friendly and the baked goods are good here. What more could you ask for?
I like the interior a lot as well. It’s very vintage inside. The couches are so retro!
I love coming here and working. There is plenty of space to work including a nice patio.

Fast and delicious. I have to pay some respect to these folks specifically for keeping their half-​and-​half in the ‘fridge, with a sign that points to it. I stopped off for a quick moment of quiet, followed by a quick moment of wifi, and I got exactly what I needed here. The suggestion for a food item was spot on. And these folks take the time to make their beverages right. I got my tasks done quickly and peacefully.

Absolutely love this place! Good coffee and a very unique ambiance. Perfect place to write in my journal…

Intelligentia coffee, coconut milk, and proximity to the new abode make this my regular work spot.
Intelligentia is a rare find here in the ATL (Condessa and Joe’s also serve it), and makes for a heckuvagood coconut milk latte. They got a good breakfast sandwich worked out too, egg whites & cheddar with sauteed peppers on an english muffin. (Though I had to pretend I didn’t hear the microwave powering up. sigh.)
it ain’t exactly cheap, but what indy coffee house is these days? Friendly staff, cozy atmosphere. Can get loud when crowded, but otherwise quite peaceful.

I stopped in here after hitting their neighbor for beer. The place is nice, staff were friendly enough, but $ 8.15 for a banh mi and nearly $ 20 for a 16ounce bag of French Roast Colombian coffee? I won’t lie, the coffee is really nice, but with those prices I’ll continue to get my coffee and banh mi elsewhere.

Err…
I wanted to like Urban Grounds. I want to like any independent coffee shop located outside of a recognizably «hip» geographical area. A Decatur resident (okay, okay, «North Decatur»; I don’t live in the 30 030 zip code), I rarely have reason to drive this far east on Ponce. But the few times I have, I’ve thought to myself on numerous occasions, «I should stop in and see how this place compares to Java Monkey or Dancing Goats or Java Vino or Inman Perk.»
So I did today. And I learned that, like Java Vino, they have a $ 5 credit card minimum, although I gleaned this information from observing the interaction of the customer ahead of me with the male barista (baristus, by my book; it ain’t like agricola or nauta) and learned that this rule can be disobeyed without consequence if one asks nicely enough. But unlike the four coffee shops previously mentioned, Urban Grounds is small (seven tables indoors). This means that it is a very infelicitous space in which to read if a loud-​talker is present, as there was during my visit this afternoon. This is a serious «con» in the «where should I read?» process of self-​questioning which I often undergo.
Not having cash on me, I purchased a can of soda, for which I could pay in coins. I appreciate that they have a cooler stocked with soda (diet and non) and VitaminWater (even VitaminWater Zero!!!). They have a great patio as well: made of wood and surrounded by «woods» (in Avondale Estates!!!) I should have migrated there after 30 minutes of sitting near the loud-​talker. Their single bathroom is also free of gender-​binary-​enforcing labels and handicap accessible.
I shan’t coddle: if one seeks a great coffee shop experience, go to Decatur or an in-​town neighborhood. But if one is geographically confined to Avondale Estates, this will do. Just know: it could be awesomer.