Steve A.
Yelp
Barrio Barista is officially my favorite coffee shop in San Antonio. Legit.
Look, I'm a PhD student who goes to coffee shops to work. I usually spend several hours so it has to have a few basic things, and I'm not too picky.
Barrio Barista's in the deep West Side down the street from St. Marys. I think it's one of the few locally owned coffee shops on this side of town and it's very much appreciated. It's right off Culebra so you can't really miss it. The parking is somewhat limited but you can easily park in the neighborhood, I suspect, without much problem.
The inside of the coffee shop is SPACIOUS. Like for real. There are a mix of chairs, tables, bar stools, and a nice outdoor patio area so you can chill, talk, work to your heart's content. One of the biggest things I look for in coffee shops is SPACE. I can't stand small coffee shops with little thought to seating. You don't really have to worry about that here. It reminds me of Spiderhouse in Austin from back in the day before it became much more of a beer garden. In short, exactly the type of space the students at St Mary's are lucky to have so close to them.
I got an Americano & a muffin for like $4.00 or something. That's fantastic. Had this been anywhere else, I'd easily pay that for just the coffee. So, like everyone else has said, the prices are super cheap. I thought the Americano was good. I'm not a coffee connoisseur so you'll have to judge the quality of the coffee on your own. Taking it on it's own terms, I thought it was alright.
Next to space, the next thing I look for in a coffee shop is wifi. HOLY CRAP. This place easily beats any of the other places I've been to around town. 60Mbps for those that want to know. Now, I'll prolly never need that much but it's great that it's offered. Some places around town are still rocking 1.5Mbps. That's just ridiculous. So, yeah, if need wifi access to work--Barrio Barista has the bandwidth available and then some.
I didn't order any real food so I can't comment on that side of the business. It did take a few minutes for them to bring out my coffee & muffin but nothing unreasonable from my perspective. If you're coming here for lunch/brunch, and there's a significant wait time like other reviewers noted, that might matter more to you.
The baristas were super friendly. They upsold me on a pastry that I didn't really think I wanted but I'm glad I got it. It's nothing out of the ordinary. Just a blueberry muffin that tastes alright. But, like I intimated earlier, I don't really come to coffee shops for food.
The ambiance is chill too. Currently they have some jazz playing softly over the loudspeakers and it's at just the right volume: White noise. There are tvs galore but most are either not on or have the volume turned down.
The *only* downsides that I can think of and this is really a pet peeve I have with coffee shops is OUTLETS! Many of the tables in the middle of the shops are not near any outlets so if you had to sit there and work, you might be out of luck if your battery dies. The booths and tables along the walls have some access but not nearly enough. Also, the hours are limited as they close at 3pm. :( (They do have a sign that says there's an open mic for poetry on Weds from 7-10pm so maybe they have special hours for certain events? I don't know)
****My suggestion to the owner or anyone reading this is to run some extension cords along the wall molding with some power strips for easy access. It wouldn't cost a whole lot but would provide a HUGE quality of life difference for customers.***
If you've made it this far, just go. It's easily one of the best coffee shops in SA right now. It's my favorite and I'm sure I'll be spending a lot more time here in the near future, especially if they fix the outlet issue.
