It’s A Grind Coffee House

It’s A Grind is an adequate coffeeshop for studying or chatting with friends, but their coffee is terrible. One day, I witnessed a barista reveal a bucket of pre-​ground coffee in the counter. He processed the ground coffee in the drip machine and then dumped the product into an airpot. «Tada, fresh coffee», he proudly exclaimed.
Even lower standards than Starbucks. Coffeeshops should never be serving pre-​ground coffee because once the beans are ground, they release carbon dioxide, and within minutes, lose their flavor if exposed to air. Always and only grind beans immediately prior to brewing.
The espresso at It’s A Grind is likely a blend and definitely not single origin. But that’s okay because many people order a latte or similar diluted beverage with whipped cream so the profile of the bean doesn’t matter. The baristas grind the beans immediately before preparing an espresso beverage, as expected and appreciated, but who knows when the beans had been roasted? It’s A Grind carries coffee beans in huge bags in excess of 5 pounds and stores them in large containers. More likely than not, these beans were roasted weeks or months ago, similar to those sold at supermarkets. It is critical to consume coffee within 2 to 3 weeks after its roasting because this is the period when the beans have a carbon dioxide protective envelope that preserves the flavor and unique profile of the bean.
It’s A Grind does not served over-​roasted beans like Starbucks, but their coffee isn’t much better. Better not come with high expectations. Treat It’s A Grind as a local neighborhood coffeeshop with air conditioning and plenty of chairs/​tables for studying and chatting.

As of today, if you check-​in, you get a 25% off coupon on any regular or large size drinks.
I have been to this complex many times but never been to It’s A Grind, so I took advantage of the 25% off offer today and checked out the place.
I ordered a regular iced blended original mocha. It was made perfectly well, and actually looked and tasted almost just like Starbuck’s Mocha Frappuccino. But this one has a slightly stronger dark chocolate taste, a little bitter (good!) and not as sweet. YUM!
Service was great. The employee who took my order and made my drink was knowledgeable and was able to answer my questions to help me choose my drink. He was pleasant and friendly. And the drink that he made was close to perfection.
They have seating both inside and outside. Since it’s really hot today, I opted to sit inside. The ambience is really nice and comfortable. The entire area was neat and tidy and the tables were clean. However, there’s one thing that they are lacking: MUSIC!
Please, play some tunes! Enhance the atmosphere and make this place really cool! But other than the lack of music, this is the place to relax and chill and I’ll certainly return and recommend.

Review is for the breakfast food only.
Tried the Egg ham cheese on a blueberry bagel. The bagel was gross.
Also had a pastry which was disgusting.

I think this might be my new favorite study spot! The atmosphere here is homey, friendly, and relaxed. It feels like the kind of place you could sit for a while and enjoy a good book or conversation.
On top of that, the staff is amazing! Genuinely nice and seem to go above and beyond for each customer that walked in.
I am still getting used to their coffee selection, but so far the iced caramel vanilla latte is my favorite! I will definitely be back soon…

Everyone who works here is SUPER nice, like wow. I’m an absolute b*tch at 6 in the morning but the baristas are all cheery.
Best place to study. Much less known than Starbucks, Panera, or Peet’s, so if you’re looking for a place where you won’t bump into your friends, this is it.
Coffee is pretty good, ice blended drinks (like the Funky Monkey) are even better.
Comfy chairs to sit in.
Pastries are the average pastries in every coffee shop. Wait, except they make sandwiches here!
Love the atmosphere/​music/​vibe.
whoop whoop.

Very pleasant place to hang out and do work. Lots of indoor and outdoor seating. Only one barista so the service was a bit slow but only because she had to do EVERYTHING. She was very quick and friendly though and definitely did her best to make sure all customers had a good experience.
Healthy snack selection was limited, although there was a nice array of pastries and sweets.
Nice change of pace from Starbucks and Coffee Bean — check it out if you’re in the area.

Apparently, there is truth in advertising after all!
Yay!
I say «yay» because I stopped in at «It’s a Grind Coffee House» the other day for a cuppa Joe and discovered that (here, at least), the coffee biznits really is a grind… at least for the barista taking my money with a grunt.
And that’s pretty much all she did… take my money and then return to reading whatever it was that she was reading off in her corner of despair.
It was clear that her job was a grind (as far as she was concerned)…and she was just marking time until she was done with the place for the day.
The coffee itself was unremarkable, and self-​serve from a row of vacuum (oh, how I love to say that word…“vacuum” slowly) pots, but on this day, no one had bothered to make fresh coffee in a while and the coffee was not as hot as it should have been.
Nor, by the way, was any dark roast made… just empty spots along vacuum canister row, where a couple of specialty blends should have been.
But I ground along through the process at «IAGCH»…I had already paid my $ 1.55 to refill my thermos cup and needed my coffee!
After I got my «House Blend», I headed for the fixin’s…Yum!
One of my pet peeves is a filthy coffee fixin’s area… and IAGCH ticked nearly every box on the list of what makes a filthy and crappy fixin’s area:
* Coffee spilled, and not wiped up — check
* Milk and cream spilled and not cleaned up — check
* Sugar and sweetener spilled and not cleaned up (I guess for extra «grindiness») — check
* Used stir sticks, straws, lids, napkins and possibly bodily fluids littering the countertop — check
* All of the above spilling onto the floor for additional «grindage» underfoot — check
At any rate, I added some lukewarm half and half (the only creamer they had out… good thing I didn’t want skim) to my mediocre (and medium warm) coffee and got out… immediately regretting that I hadn’t grabbed coffee at MickieD’s or even Circle K.
I didn’t try out the wifi or sit around the place and work on my screenplay (I have been inspired by my buddy Creighton), so all I can comment on is the service, the cleanliness and the coffee itself… wait a minute… that’s pretty much the whole deal, isn’t it!
I know… it’s a grind… and life is a grind… but come on IAGCH… you can do better than this.

I came here when needing a spot to meet some prospective high school students who were applying to my grad school. It is in a fairly large shopping plaza and is near the Petco (just so you can find it). I have had the chai tea latte and the chocolate raspberry coffee. I think their coffees are ok. It also can get loud at times and there isn’t a whole lot of seating for more than two inside.
As Maria H said back in 2010, there still seems to be a group of men sitting outside ogling. But if it’s a problem, there is a second entrance :)
Just ok. Would rather go to The Lost Bean.

Looking for a starbucks in the area, I came across It’s A Grind instead and decided to get my fix of iced coffee from here. I haven’t been to this place in a long time. i remember how much I liked their mocha’s and regular brewed coffee’s so I was pleasantly surprised to see one in the area.
Went inside and wasn’t sure if I wanted to get their iced coffee or iced mocha. The girl working there was VERY helpful and friendly. I asked how they prepared their iced coffee and she said it’s from the Toddy ice coffee maker. Cool so it’s not just hot coffer poured over ice. I asked if I can get simple syrup to sweeten the iced coffee but she said that’s the only thing they don’t carry. What??? But I always get iced coffee with simple syrup from starbucks!
She suggested adding in a little bit of vanilla to sweeten the taste. After she was done putting my drink together, she brought it over to my table and said she’ll put in more vanilla if it’s not sweet enough. How sweet of her to actually bring my drink over to where I was sitting AND was willing to give me more syrup! Good service! I don’t know her name. She was working on a Friday afternoon around 3:30pm and had short bangs. Whoever you are, I hope to see you make my future iced coffee drinks!

For those of you that don’t like reading long reviews, here’s the CliffNotes Version: decent drinks, great internet access, plenty of seating, clean bathrooms = 4 stars.
This place is right across the street from my apartment that I’ve been living at for almost 8 months now. Really not sure why I didn’t ever stop by earlier.
I always get a (sugar free) Vanilla Latte at any coffee shop I go to — it’s the drink I use to rate/​compare different coffee places. It’s a Grind had surprisingly decent ones — not OMGGG DELISH (this is usually my reaction when I go to Urth Caffe). but «hey, hmmm, nooot bad». I wouldn’t go out of my way to come here for their drinks, but I definitely don’t mind stopping by if I’m in the vicinity. I had a few sips of my bf’s ice blended mocha — was quite tasty, just like a dessert. Would be a great drink to get on a hot summer day.
Their internet was amazingly easy to use — this was a huge deal for me because I HATE the way Coffee Bean kicks you off their Wifi every 2 hours. Seriously? Ugh. Well here you can get plugged in without a code and bam — solid internet service that’s free and uninterrupted. Sweet!
Nice place to study as well. There are several tables situated both inside and out. At around 2:30 in the afternoon, there was still plenty of seating. Started getting crowded around 4−5pm or so. So if you’re here to work awhile, I’d recommend getting here by the early afternoon.
Bathrooms were clean too — another star from me. And the workers there didn’t complain when I brought in a bunch of subway and JJ’s bakery goods with me to eat inside.

I love this place. I had a hard time finding it using my GPS. Then I updated the maps and it was easy. I had a small size High Octane coffee that I mixed with the Chocolate Raspberry flavored coffee. I like It’s a Grind because when you purchase coffee, they give you a cup (or you can bring an It’s a Grind commuter mug) and you choose from the coffees on brew.
I like this method because I can get as much or as little coffee as I want. If I want room for cream, I leave space for the cream. If I don’t, I fill the cup all the way up to the top with the particular coffee I want. If I want to sweeten my High Octane coffee, I’ll fill it up halfway with High Octane and halfway with Vanilla Nut.
I didn’t write down the name of the barista that rang up my coffee but I had a nice chat with her. She’s really nice and very knowledgeable about the products on the menu. This particular location has indoor and outdoor seating. It’s close to a church I’m considering attending. There’s also KFC nearby in addition to a ton of other restaurants.

Any coffee shop that has
— good friendly baristas,
— is clean,
— has places to sit (tables inside and outside),
— has clean bathrooms,
— has FREE reliable wi-​fi,
— has really good coffee and
— has good desserts
is at least 4 stars. What makes this coffee place 5 stars for me is that on Friday and/​or Saturday nights, they have singers and mostly acoustical bands. Sometimes they’re not so good, but sometimes they are. To me, it’s fantastic when a coffee place provides local musical artists a chance to express themselves. For customers, it’s free live entertainment if you don’t mind the noise. Sadly, we got here near closing time and the singer had just left.
Sometimes you do want a quiet place to study or answer emails, but I hope not on a Satuday or Friday night. For most that’s the sacred time to relax. Ok I know sometimes you have a school exam, and you prefer it quiet. Hopefully you can still study in the noise, or hang around the tables and chairs outside.
I don’t care how good or bad the band or singer is, I always drop at least dollar or two in their tip jar. Eventually even if they’re not yet as good as they are in their fantasties, they’ll hopefully get better and come back.
On this visit, I had the Café Americano, which was perfect. I’ve also had their various brewed coffees before which I really like-​especially the dark brews. For dessert, I had a cupcka. e I was surprised how good the red velvet cupcake ($ 3.50) wdas. It was pricey but a larger cupcake. But it tasted really good, really moist and great even without the frosting. The frosting, which I usually think is too sweet in many cupcakes, was just right. There was plenty of cream cheese. And even thought it was served cold, it was soft. If it had been room temperature or even slightly microwaved, it would have been perfect. I could only eat half, and my friends thought it was a really good cupcake as well. BTW their desserts are made by a local bakery.
The place is open till 10 PM. A blended coffee drink, hot chocolate, tea and maybe a dessert are a perfect ending to a decent meal at one of the many places to eat (Outback, Marie Callender, Sam Woo, Chicken Dijon, etc.) in this mini mall.

It’s A Grind is under new ownership and his name is Byron — he is imaginative and interesting if you know what I mean. He’s a little light on his feet. =^.^=
Byron tries hard to please, and tries to charm with his flamboyancy, but that notwithstanding I am confident that he is NOT a seasoned businessman.
The coffee is ok, the seating area is nice with comfortable chairs — but Byron has prohibited laptop use when seated at one of the comfortable lounge chairs. X_​X
It’s a quaint neighborhood place.
Cheers!