Spica Coffee & Tea

Despite working in the same building, I never took the chance to visit Spica.
It always seemed like a cozy and quaint place. Then one week, the place sat idle. And one day shortly after, I found that everything inside had been removed and the sign on the outside of the building was gone.
As a new business is under construction here, I can’t help but wonder what happened to Spica, and why it disappeared without warning. Perhaps we’ll never know.

I wallked in there and asked about the breakfast sandwiches… the woman behind the counter was not nice. Very rude.

In between Starbucks and Le boulanger, it’s pretty tough.
They are just okay, if you prefer even more quiet place than the other two, then this can be a place for you.
I am not a big fan of coffee anyway, so it doesn’t matter with me.

I have been here twice, and treated very badly both times by the same woman behind the counter. She was extremely rude and I will never go back there until someone else owns it. I live right around the corner, and I want local business to do well. Not if they do business like the current owners.

I stopped by for a bit before a meeting nearby. The owner seems a little abrupt, but is actually really friendly, nice, and considerate. I tried her mango tea; it was decent. It seems like a cute neighborhood stop, with people stopping in to say hi to her every few minutes. A good stop if you need coffee and are in the neighborhood.

I like this place. It is simple but inviting. The coffee is very good, way better than the next door Starbuck’s and the lady running the place very nice.
Among al lthe coffee places along Castro street I believe this is the one I like the most.

Came here because it was between this and the Starbucks that was open on Christmas Day. I figured, why not try something different. I was really impressed with the Vanilla Latte that I had. Next time I’m going to have to try their regular coffee so I can see how their roast are.

I ended up coming here for the first time because it is one of the few cafes open on Christmas Day. A friend had flown in from out of town and had not had lunch yet, so we wanted to find a place to grab some light, healthy fare while we could use wifi to get some work done.
The places I could think of with good sandwiches were closed — Café Romanzza, Bean Scene, Le Boulanger, Sunnyvale Art Gallery. In downtown Mountain View, besides Starbucks, only this café was open (yay for Asian-​owned businesses! ;)).
We opted for Spica since I have been making it a goal to try all the cafes and they had food options of chicken salad, bagel sandwich, chicken pesto sandwich, etc. It was nice to see that the prices are quite reasonable for drinks and food. And I like the bright yellow on the walls.
The space feels crammed since there was a long line of customers looking for their caffeine fix on Christmas day. There is not a lot of walking space around the tables and chairs. I could only find one outlet by the sofa at the back of the store next to the radio so we made a beeline for the table there.
The owner lady (as mentioned in other reviews) is definitely not the smile-​at-​you and make-​you-​feel-​welcome type. If they are out of something, she will not be apologetic. Since I was already expecting this, this did not faze me much. The younger Asian male (her son, I’m assuming) is a lot friendlier.
They do not have their own wifi so they will direct you to try to connect to guest wifi in the area. The Mozilla Guest one worked for me but was sluggish for a bit when sharing with others.
The café also does not have their own restroom in the café, but you can use the one in the building (to the left of the elevators).
So the verdict? Would I come back for my work-​remote afternoons? Actually I would! I don’t need conversation when working anyway. Just need a clean place that is not too loud with good drinks/​food that aren’t overpriced. At Spica, I don’t feel like I am getting ripped off and since it is not as well-​known, I feel like it’s a place that I can come to bury myself in a productive afternoon. As long as I can get a seat near the outlet, I’ll be one happy camper!
Remember: they only take debit or cash.

I was on my way to Starbucks when I discovered his quiet cozy little coffee shop. In addition to coffee and pastries there is a small gift shop section with little artisan products– bath salts, jewelry, scarves purses etc. very cute and a good quiet place to think.

We unexpectedly ended up here today. Morning. .. coffee. .. need. .. though we rarely drink coffee. Walking in it is small and crammed with a ton of stuff. Scarfs. .. soaps. . necklaces. . bags. .. etc. Luckily they had coffee too.
The décor is nice. They had this chessboard table that was kind of cool and comfy chairs. In the back they have a wall of patrons, which makes it feel homey and local. We sat comfortably drinking our coffee. I had milk with a splash of coffee and a ton of ice. Yum! He had an iced hazelnut latte, but he thought there was too much ice (only three sips he says). We also share a banana nut bread and it was soft, moist and delicious. The woman who seems to run it was incredibly friendly and nice. Great service!
When deciding between this spot and Starbucks a few stores down, choose this spot. Hurrah for local places!

Great local coffee place. I came here when going to ups one day and noticed it next door. The woman pj who owns the place is really nice and always plays around with my 2 yr old daughter while I get a min to relax and drink my chai. Have tried 3 different drinks and liked them all. Good coffee and tea. My daughter always gets a piece of fresh fruit.

I guess I’m just missing something about Spica. The first time I went in I was enticed by a HUGE selection of flavored coffee for sale by the pound. Great except when I picked out a few flavors to buy a bag of, I was told they were out of stock. After striking out three or four times in a row I finally just asked what they had; and it was only dark roast. Out of around 25 options on the board they had one. I passed…
On a recent stop on the way to work I just couldn’t bring myself to go into the Starbucks next door so I gave Spica another shot. I got decent, strong (in a good way) house blend coffee which I sugared to taste at a picked over, slightly messy (at 7 something AM) pile of sugar packs and stir sticks over by the side window. Oh and the lady working there hassled me for cash instead of just letting me pay with my credit card (who uses cash anymore!?), which I awkwardly agreed to since I uncharacteristically had cash at the time.
I think I’m done with the place. Maybe there’s something great going on here I’m just not into (great chai lates? I guess I’ll never know).
Pepper Plant Sauce = NO

¹⁰⁄₁₂
3 doors down from Starbucks. Drinks are nice and HOT. Store has lots of chic gift clutter. Crowds are sparse probably because owner hovers, although she opened the door and was efficient.

WOW! this place is an epic fail!
the wife and I stopped by on our way to a family party on christmas morning. Should have known better when we drove down Castro and this was the only coffee place open (and all the chinese and indian restaurants).
The wife is a little hungry and wants a pre-​family caffeine fix, so she orders a peppermint mocha and a croissant. While she’s waiting for her order, I started to take a look around… lots of random trinkets for sale, a Costco red velvet cake and pumpkin pie in the pastry cabinet (thats why the pieces are cut so large, they’re from Costco!), no milk/​cream anywhere to be found, or any napkins! My wife asks for some napkins for the croissant and the lady gives her LITERALLY ONE NAPKIN! haha
We get our order, and the peppermint mocha is ridiculously sweet… like nothing but syrup and artificial flavor sweet! I went up to the lady to let her know, «excuse miss, this peppermint mocha is really, really sweet. Is there anything we can do to make it a little more palatable. My wife literally can’t drink this one because its so sweet.» The lady starts telling me that different places have different recipes for their peppermint mochas. I politely tell her that I agree, and appreciate that– but this one is too sweet, and we didn’t spend $ 5 on a drink and $ 3 on a croissant to not be able to drink our mocha. She says that she could add some hot water, or states that maybe adding another shot would temper the sweetness. to which i agree, I think that a shot might help the sweetness but water definitely wouldn’t make the mocha more drinkable.
She says, «i’ll have to charge you for the extra shot.»
my response, «what? seriously? I paid $ 5 for a drink that my wife finds impossible to drink, and the one recommendation you have that can help make the mocha better is for me to pay you more money?»
lady, «yes»
Me: «i don’t think that makes sense»
lady: «maybe next time you should order something else»
Me: «maybe next time i’ll go somewhere else»
lady: «ok»
i was amazed! so much for customer service! I always thought the best thing about smaller local coffee shops was the people and service, but to pay this much for an unpalatable mocha. EPIC FAIL!

Thanks to my local Unilocal Elite friend Julie K for bringing me here for a quick drink and catch up after we’d had lunch at Bön Chon chicken.
Parking was easy on the street outside — even managed to parallel park despite driving on the ‘wrong’ side of the road!
Spica is small but perfectly formed and cute. Besides drinks and snacks, they also sell little gifts. The owner listened to the fact that I don’t really drink hot drinks and recommended an iced coffee drink, which proved to be perfect
I was intrigued by the wall of fame containing pictures of customers, a feature I’ve seen at a few places in the USA but a fad which hasn’t lit British shores yet
Julie and I were able to spend a pleasant, relaxed time in the café chatting and catching up. What’s not to like?

This little coffee shop has a comfortable environment, good coffee, good snacks, good music, and an awesome owner.
I came in just to kill some time while I waited to meet up with a friend. The place was pretty quiet so P.J. struck up a conversation with me. She’s a cool person and really made my day :)

I was on my way to Starbucks, but my Unilocal app showed me that there were a couple of coffee shops in closer proximity. I’d rather support mom’n’pop establishments so I decided to check this place out. Had I not been using my Unilocal app, I would have walked right past this place – it’s near LeBoulangerie on Castro.
Cozy, clean shop.
One of the best cappuccinos I have had.
The owner? PJ was very helpful in recommending something to eat; I had a ham, egg and cheese croissant (tasty, but FYI, they use what appears to be American cheese singles). PJ was friendly and chatted with me, and when another customer came in he was obviously a regular – I think this is the kind of spot where you can get personalized service. Coffee is better than Starbucks, for sure. I would definitely come back.

This is a small hole-​in-​the-​wall business where you might not notice it straight away from the street. But, once inside, it’s my kind of place. It’s quiet (I don’t like hella people around me. That’s just how it is. It’s good for me, but probably not so good for business), cozy, and P.J. (the owner) is cool. Some reviewers didn’t like her behavior, but she’s been nothing but nice and real every time I’ve visited. She also supports local artist and displays/​sells their wares (trinkets, bags, and jewelry). You’ll seldom see that at a corporate coffee maker.
She doesn’t seem like an ass kisser and I appreciate that. Service is personable and she always remembers my name and what I want (a large chai latte which is my favorite!).

The place is close to City Hall, it’s quiet and unpretentious, warmly decorated, they have an interesting array of jewelry for sale, free WiFi, and their coffee drinks are not half bad. Their food options are somewhat limited, but this spot is solid to get stuff done. I’d go back.

Long Story short: great little mom and pop coffee shop with a super nice and adorable owner.
Long story long:
After lunch at Maru Ichi down the street, I still had a few hours to kill and well, I needed to charge my phone. Julie K knows the owner here and comes in a lot, so there wasn’t an issue plugging in my phone while we chilled out and dug into our cupcakes from Vanilla Moon.
The place is located in a small business building on the bottom floor. There are a few street spots out front, but a small parking lot in the back. The place itself is rather quaint, with plenty of lounge chairs and a couple couches to relax on. The owner definitely has made this place her own.
Speaking of the owner, PJ, who is this half Korean, half Japanese woman (maybe mid-​late 30s… I hope she isn’t reading this but probably will…) who actually turned out to be really nice and really funny. She genuinely cares about her customers and appears to have quite a few regulars. In the couple hours we were there, there weren’t that many people who came through, but it was mid afternoon and honestly, to me, Mountain View sounds like a morning coffee kind of town, hahaha.
We actually came here for a little bit before lunch, then came back to have the cupcakes after lunch. I had a cappuccino and while I’m no coffee expert/​connoisseur, it was good and I liked it.
Again, the owner is just really sweet and her and Julie went off about me being single and that they were going to see if they could set me up with someone. She even took a picture of me so she could put it up on her wall of customers. It was kind of amusing though.
I’d definitely stop in if I’m ever in town again. I just love supporting small, local businesses like this.