Brewd Awakening

It’s always nice to see a storefront devoted to the ways of coffee. Here, patrons are greeted with a smile behind an iPad-​based square register and in front of a Nuova Simonelli Aurelia Competizione Semi-​Automatic 3-​group (er, the official espresso machine of the World Barista Championships.)
Top Flat screen is on C-​Span. Bottom one appears as the desktop monitor of a remote computer.
Interesting aspects include:
Donuts: by Donut Kingdom. And, yes, I spotted the Homer Simpson in the case this morning.
Coffee: by BOTH Catalina Café AND Lucky Goat! Way to diversify support for the homegrown roasters!
Mexi-​fare: that’s right. Before you go off on some «coffee shop & Mexican food!!!» tirade, just realize this is a well grounded pairing. Chiapas, Veracruz and Oaxaca have historically produced solid coffee crops. The menu options here will satisfy coffee snobs, Mexi-​gourmands and all in between.
The music pumped out this morning are top-​notch 80’s «standards» and the volume is just right.
For those in the surrounding buildings, this place adds well to a growing set of downtown options.
Go TLH!

Okay so I’ve waited to do this review until I had the chance to come back a second time. During my first visit, I ordered a cortadito. If I was basing my review on that, Brewd Awakening would have earned 5 stars, as it’s arguably the best cortadito I’ve had in Tallahassee.
But, I wanted to come back to review it based how I review every other coffee joint: in the following five key areas.
1. Strong, high-​quality espresso. In this, Brewd Awakening is a bit lacking. The espresso I recently tried was nowhere near as strong as it should have been, barely had a crema, and was just bland.
2. They do have the option to serve it Cuban style, which I had. Problem is, it’s a product of the espresso described above.
3. The baristas are very nice and knowledgable, so check!
4. The location is comfortable and pleasant, so check! and
5. They do serve espresso using the proper demitasse cups and utensils, so check!
Given the above, I’d award Brewd Awakening only three stars, but their great cortadito has to count for something. They just need to work on serving a better espresso, which is the base for most coffee drinks.
Also noticed other folks having sandwiches that looked great, but I haven’t had one yet.
So…great place to grab a coffee on the go, but I’d avoid an espresso or Cuban coffee. Instead, go for the Cortadito, which was VERY VERY VERY good.

Atomic Coffee left big shoes to fill and Brewd fills those zapatos quite nicely. Don’t let the coffee pun name trick you, this place isn’t just about coffee. The food here is muy delicioso. For breakfast I recommend their twist on the BLT, the BGT – Bacon, Guacamole, Tomato – somehow avocados make everything better. Lunch is traditional Americanized Mexican, like burrito bowls, watch out Chipotle, Moe’s, Echale, Burrito Border, Barberitos, (gasp), etc.
The biggest downside is that they don’t serve coffee in those cool dia de los muertos style cups.

I’ve only ever had the Iced Coffee, but it was good enough that I haven’t bothered to order anything else. It’s awesome having another food option downtown that isn’t the norm. Breakfast Tacos and Regular Tacos are pretty good.

Jury is still out, I can’t decide if I love it or I hate it or I really don’t care one way or another for it.
I’m just not sure I want tacos, quesadillas, or the like with my coffee. You know? I’ve ever had a coffee and had a sudden craving for a taco, or been stuffing my face with a quesadilla and said.‘You know what would be good with this? A shot of espresso.’ Maybe I’m just not open-​minded enough… maybe I’m growing old… maybe it’s the fact it reminds me of a business district lobby café in Miami where you can get a cafecito and empanada for $ 3 then hop in the elevator and go to your lawyers office. Tallahassee isn’t Miami though, and this place is no empanada stand.
Ambiance is surreal, not in a good way, since it really is in a hotel lobby. It would help significantly if it was its own little storefront. Overall though, I was slightly uncomfortable there but I did check them out on their very first day so that awkwardness might have been attributed to that. For my lunch, I had a torta with tempeh, good job for having a meat substitute! but it was unfortunately, very underwhelming. PS– They put mexican cheese in everything so not exactly screaming vegan-​friendly (though with Jasmine across the way they really don’t need to try to please THAT audience).
Friend who suggested the joint had a quesadilla which looked ok and was a good size. Portions are good and prices are reasonable for a quick workday lunchtime meal. Two things they have going for them:
1. Salsa verde was on point despite having a small (seriously small) array of hot sauces.
2. They have churros (they don’t look very authentic but what do you expect?) so, if you’ve got some intense churro craving… you know where to go.
I will check them out again and see if I can make up my mind.