Derek W.
Yelp
I'm confident that you'll like Confidential Coffee or your time back reading this review!
Well, maybe I can't do anything about the time, but I do believe you'll have a nice time at Confidential Coffee whether you're here to get some work done, play a board game, or even pick up a cup of Joe!
I placed this coffee shop on my radar due to their participation with Fivestars, and I wanted to give them a try, especially since they were pretty close to the City Place A Parking Lot in DTLB where the first two hours of parking are free. The lot adjacent to Confidential Coffee is for Rite Aid customers only, so unless you plan to shop at Rite Aid, don't park there. If you park at the City Place A lot, you simply have to double-cross one intersection before you end up at this Latinx owned coffee shop on the northeast corner of 6th and Pacific.
I had a Fivestars reward for two drinks, but the barista had a difficult time applying it to my order. He could see the offer on my account, so he simply honored it for me. They have menus on their front counter for both coffee and tea. It was mid-afternoon when I visited, a little late in the day for me to be drinking coffee, so I went with two cups of tea. Which flavors though?
I had been going through quite a lot, and I just wanted some me time in the coffee shop. Herbal Tea sounded like the way to go. They offer three: Feel Better, Yoga Blend, and Ruby Nectar. I went with the first two, though I'd be open to trying the Ruby Nectar on a future visit!
It wasn't specified on the counter menu, but the teas can be prepared either hot or iced. I wanted to try one hot and one iced so that I could enjoy the iced tea while letting the hot tea cool down. The description for Yoga Blend contained the word "warming", so I decided to order the Yoga Blend hot and the Feel Better iced to make it easier for me to remember which one was hot and which was cold for the purposes of captioning my photos.
The barista was pretty friendly, but also kind of slow at preparing my drinks. I didn't recall seeing any other customer come in after me, but it took almost 10 minutes for my first drink, the Feel Better, to come out. And then another 2 minutes later, the Yoga Blend came out.
Both of the drinks really hit the spot, and in different ways. I sat at a couch in the rear of the shop directly in front of a painting depicting Frida Kahlo.
Next to that couch is a printer, and behind that printer is the information you need to connect to their WiFi. Actually, they have that info posted in several places around the shop, so you shouldn't have to be moving any furniture or other equipment just to connect to their WiFi.
After connecting to their WiFi, I got to disconnect from the physical world, at least outside of the shop, and scroll through Yelp, trying to decide on what restaurant to go to that evening.
With other customers in the shop getting some work done, the barista would sometimes take breaks by going to the back every so often. I didn't see anyone else working besides him, so I'm guessing it's not that busy during the course of the day, or at least closer to closing time at 5 PM on weekdays, except for Mondays when they close at 9 PM. Why so late? They do trivia on Mondays at 7 PM.
The interior decor has some really nice artwork that you can appreciate if you are into the arts or even just Latinx culture. There's even a picnic table where you can play a little chess, or if you're into other board games, you may find a better one on the bottom of a bookcase by the front window. The bookcase has plenty of books that I guess you could call it a mini library.
Case in point, there's plenty to do in this shop while you sip on your drinks. Overall, a nice place to hang out and relax after a tough day of work.