Coffee Central

The staff are entirely composed of conventionally attractive young white middle class women in their late teens and early twenties. It’s no surprise that aging heterosexual male civil servants want to spend a lot of time chatting with them while the staff prepare their coffee.
The building is surrounded on three sides by Point Plaza East and West (two buildings housing the state Department of Health), the US Post Office, and the State Library. The fourth side faces a parking garage used by state employees and the state motor pool. Consequently, almost all of their customers are civil servants. This ought to be a quick in and out place where people on their 15 minute break or lunch can grab a cup of coffee and a bite to eat. However the service is painfully slow. I’ve had to wait upwards of a half hour for a coffee. That time comprises both 15 minute breaks, or half of my lunch hour. The cost for such a cup hovers around $ 5. While this coffee is not particularly artisanal or work intensive in its preparation, the cost and the slowness of preparation make it more worthwhile to travel down the road than to walk the 300 feet from any of the aforementioned government office entrances to the café door.
The staff seem perplexed by anyone that doesn’t express a prurient interest in them, and can’t quite comprehend why anyone walking into that establishment would be more focused on getting a cup of coffee and then leaving than in ogling them.
In short, if what you need is a quick wake me up to get through the second half of your morning, you’d be better off just bringing coffee with you and making it at the office.

Coffee Central is an oasis amid a desert of state office buildings. It’s directly across Israel road from the Tumwater post office. Kinda hard to see from the road, just pull into the parking lot or parking garage. This location primarily serves the office workers and visitors to the state office buildings nearby.
The staff is incredibly friendly and cheerful. Their roaster is Caffe Vita and they sling a good espresso. There are a wide selection of pasties, as well as salads and sandwiches from a local caterer. Hot soup on weekdays too!

This place was super hard to find! It is tiny and cute and tucked between many large office buildings. When I was here it was pretty slow and they let me hang out for a long time and do paperwork. It was super cold in there for some reason. The girl behind the counter was super nice.

This is the only place I know of that serves my favorite drink, the Cubano. It’s a double espresso brewed with cinnamon and raw sugar, then topped with foam and raw sugar crystals. Based on a traditional Cuban drink, and it is delicious!

Nice little coffee spot and island of sanity in the middle of bureaucracy! I have had several occasions to visit Coffee Central in the past few months and no matter what time I get there I have always had a good coffee. The Caramel Machiatto-​like frappucino is awesome and I had a Kahlua and crème today that was really good. I haven’t had a snack there yet but they look great and they also have an eclectic selection of gifts/​stationary stuff. Kind of off the beaten track in the parking lot for DVR and a couple of other state buildings but worth a stop if you are near there and wondering where to get a cup. Parking is hard because of the state offices so if you pair it with an errand it makes more sense for sure.