Has it ever been a tough road for the retail space at the southeast corner of 10th & Carpenter. Over the last decade, we've seen a crazy amount of turnover in this space, with half a dozen coffee shops coming and going over that time. Can you remember all of them? If not, this list should serve as a reminder of the difficulties of the coffee business and the challenges for this tiny space across from Bardascino Park.
InFusion, Mazag Cafe, Filter Cafe, Bookz-n-Beans, Brown Sugar Cafe, Down Dog Healing Cafe.
Wow.
In April, Function Coffee Labs opened here. We checked it out a couple weeks back and came away really impressed.
This place takes their coffee very seriously, upping the artisanal ante by offering tasting flights as a standard menu item. A duo flight is a shot of espresso and a shot of coffee. A trio is a coffee shot, a cortado, and a pourover coffee, all made from the same coffee bean so you can appreciate the flavors expressed from the different preparation methods. Very cool stuff. They've got some basic food and some pastries too, and with their coffee program offering something new and different there's a real shot (no pun intended) that they'll stick here where others could not.
If you live in the area or even if you don't, check 'em out and help the cause. And then go play some bocce across the street.