Leelanau Coffee Roasting

Friendly people, decent coffee, savory breakfast sandwiches, and a spacious bathroom for getting out of hiking or XC skiing clothes before a long drive — Leelanau fills a nice niche.
The breakfast sandwich was a fairly standard English muffin, a decent egg, crispy bacon, and an American cheese single — not fancy, but good sustenance for goofing around on the dunes in the snow.
The hot chocolate was a little weak — milky and warm, rather than rich and hot.
I enjoy the sign on the bathroom: «For customers only… but coffee is cheap.» My protocol exactly.
There’s souvenir mugs and local art prints if you need something to take home for yourself or as a gift; a variety of coffees, and an assortment of slightly shapeless pastries.
Not fancy, but comfortable.

Two friends of mine have previously visited this place and recommended I check it out. I was on my way back to Cherry Capital Airport and got into Traverse City earlier than I expected — so I made the 40 minute drive over the Glen Arbor to see this place and get some coffee.
I met Mike the owner and chatted with him for a few minutes, and got a cup of coffee to go. Nice guy and good coffee!
They ship coffee beans mail order to where ever — so check out their coffee!

This place was nice to grab a pound of coffee and get a latte. Friendly staff. Coffee is excellent. The bagels from the case were really good, too.

I feel like if your name includes the word «coffee» and coffee is all you do — then it better be good!
Coffee is pretty lacking in the area so when I saw someone walking around with an iced espresso beverage I basically starting jumping up and down. I needed my caffeine fix!!! Walking in it smelled like delicious coffee — so that was a good start.
Overall, inside was kind of a mess. It wasn’t exactly clean and there was stuff all over the place.
I ordered an iced coffee and honestly it just wasn’t great. It tasted burnt and almost smokey (I joked to my husband that it kind of tasted like beef jerky).
Yes, I admit I am a coffee snob but this was severely lacking. Blah.

Quick service, about 4 coffee blends to choose from (they say 6 but two were empty– it was 4^th of July weekend, after all). A nice little regular neighborhood coffee joint, and the coffee was good, but there wasn’t anything too special about the shop.

The coffee is delish, but the 6 high schoolers behind the counter really couldn’t care less that there are customers in line. We had to flag someone down to ring up our waters. I would still go back for the coffee, though!

My husband and I stopped here on our honeymoon and we had a great experience! Very friendly staff and the coffee was great!!! We ended up buying a few bags of coffee and their amaretto blend is amazing! Definitely will be visiting again!!!

Throughout our entire stay up north, every place we went to had amazing coffee. If it wasn’t from another place in Traverse City, it was from Leelanau Coffee.
Amazing coffee. Every diner had incredible coffee and I feel bad that i didn’t see which blend they had. As we were leaving our vacation, we stopped by this place for coffee and some beans to bring back home. But once we walked in, I was greeted by a huge diversity of blends of coffees!
The staff was a little confused with all of our questions. I’m not sure if they get some clueless tourists? But they got the answers to our questions as best as they could and we left with two big, delicious coffees, and a pound of beans to bring home with us.
We have awesome coffee at home, now. Although I swear it’s just better up north… :)

Got the princess mocha and promptly spilled it in my car. They were kind enough to redo it for me which really helped lighten a rainy day. And it was delicious.

Stopped in here while traveling through the area. The young lady behind the counter was not that friendly when I asked where I order she said, what do you want? I said just a regular coffee, so she curtly said it’s self service over there, pointing to the airpots on the counter. I was surprised it was self service and they charged me $ 2.00 for a small cup of regular coffee. I could have stopped at a convenience store or Micky D and got the same thing for less than a buck. Too bad.

Without this coffee shop, Glenn Arbor MI just wouldn’t be the same. Coffees are excellent there but what brings tears to my eyes are the perfect croissants sold there. As a foodie who has been living and traveling extensively for 16 years in the US, always in quest of an authentic european type pastry, I simply would say that the croissants there are the best that I ever tested. Eyes closed, each bite brings my childhood back to me, thanks to the slight fresh «crunch», the so flavorfull but subtle buttery taste. It just doesn’t get any better than that, especially with a good coffee.

We just got our coffee order in the mail, and it’s as fresh and delicious as if they roasted it yesterday. I think we went 4 times this year on our 1-​week vacation and never remembered to pick up beans for the road! Thankfully you can order online or over the phone.
When in Glen Arbor I always order espresso drinks here because they have a REAL machine and hand pull each shot — none of that espress-​o-​matic sludge you get at Starbucks. They also do Cuban shots! The cinnamon rolls with cream cheese icing are to die for. Easy off-​street parking, lovely outdoor patio.

It’s okay… Prob the best cup of coffee in town, but that isn’t saying much. I will qualify it by saying that I am particular about my lattes and the right ratio of espresso, milk and foam. But it’s the only coffee shop in town. Brewed coffees are decent, the flavored ones are overpowering, and the baked goods are average. But they try hard, and that effort is appreciated.

It’s OK. Not bad, not great. The fruit smoothie is really sweet. Coffee is… well, OK. You could do worse. Still a nice place to sit and study. Nice outdoor seating, too.

Really good cinnamon rolls! Stopped in while on a bike ride and enjoyed a couple. Huge variety of coffee drinks, plus ice cream and pastries. Love the sign on the bathroom– restrooms are for customers only but coffee’s cheap. Works for us!

Great coffee! I’ve noticed a tendency of coffee shops in the region to make relatively weak espresso drinks (e.g. 1 shot for a twelve ounce and 2 shots for a 16 ounce). Not the case here — they add a shot to that for a much richer drink. And the quality of the coffee is quite good — we were really impressed. A great way to start a day of hiking in the Dunes.

This was mediocre coffee at best. In fact the next day I just went to the Homestead where we were staying and it wasn’t more expensive and it was better tasting. I would skip this one.

I’m torn about how to rate Leelanau Coffee.
On the plus side: it’s a beautiful setting, and the staff is really friendly*.
* almost jarringly so, for this urbanite: I walked through the door and before I’d reached the cash had been greeted with both a «good morning!» and a compliment about my watch
The spot seems like it’s a great community gathering place for those living in, or just passing through, Glen Arbor.
With that out of the way:
The coffee is… not great. In fact, it’s…verging on awful. Both their filter coffee and their espresso-​based drinks taste weak, and the coffee drinks seemed geared towards those who don’t even appreciate a fine roast (see: sweetly flavoured novelty coffees).
Unilocal note: sometimes, even when on vacation, you need a few moments of peace and quiet with your laptop and your inbox. In that case: Leelanau Coffee is perfect with its free wifi, clean bathrooms, and space conducive to both chatting and computer work.

really watered down coffee, and a super below sized espresso that was $ 2.80–
It’s so hard to swallow, how you can own a coffee house and poor such bad drip? they rip you off by improperly making their coffee correctly. 7 – 11 is what they serve
come on folks.

This place may be cool in the tourist season but I didn’t have a good experience at all. I came here for the first time a few days ago and was soooorely disappointed. I really wanted to like it but I didn’t. I asked for a frappé and they told me that they didn’t have any ice (in winter?) all season and then just decided on a 10oz hot chocolate instead. My mom got a 10oz milk steamer. I didn’t like my hot chocolate at all (bad taste and not even hot) and my mom didn’t like her milk steamer (she sad the flavor was off and it was also luke warm). Paid $ 5.25 for 2 10oz drinks? Meh, not worth it. Went to go get shirts and also noticed that the selection was very picked through and almost all the shirts said «summer 2010» on them… even though it was spring of 2011. Not sure I’ll come back but if I do, it will be during tourist season. (2 stars)
**UPDATE:
Returned in early June, just a few days ago and had a much better experience. After seeing my review, the owner sent me a gift card and handled the situation very well, I must say. I used my gift card to buy a Frappé (or «Frap-​eh») and it was very good. Strong coffee flavor and could tell they were brewed with fresh beans. Very pleasant server again and I can say that going during tourist season turned out much better. Changing my review to 4 out of 5 stars. =)