Cafe Cole

I enjoy a diversity of different cafes, coffee shops, juice shops, and eateries, from hip spots like tartine, four barrell, blue bottle, ritual, and sidewalk juice in the mission to arizmendi in the sunset and anything good in between. All of these places share a common thread: they have good food and a great, welcoming, friendly attitude to their customers. I went into Cafe Cole for maybe the third time ever in several years of living in SF. Every time I go in this place, I am greeted with anything but a smile. Which is fine. I do not need someone behind the counter to be pleasant...but it sure is nice when someone happens to be friendly. Anyway, I ordered a smoothy, paid my 4 dollars, gave the woman with blonde hair who works at Cafe Cole a 1 dollar tip, and walked to the patio to sip on the smoothy. About 5 minutes later I walked back in and asked to use the restroom. The woman with blonde hair who works at Cafe Cole paused for a few seconds and gave me a ""i'm sizing you up"" look. Fortunately she approved of me and handed me the bathroom key. When I exited the restroom, I handed her back the key, and then proceeded to look for a container of water to fill up my bottle. (note: every cafe listed above has water containers for their customers.) When I couldn't find one, I asked her if they had water for customers, and I held up my bottle to indicate that I wanted to put the water in this bottle. She looked at me, again pausing as if she was assessing me, and then asked, ""You mean you want to buy a bottle of water?"" I said, ""No, I would like to just fill up my water bottle, and I am wondering if you have a pitcher of water somewhere."" She literally sighed, as if this took some huge effort on her part, even though NO other customers were in the cafe. She finally, in a gruff manner, told me ""Fine, I'll fill it up for you, but I'm not supposed to."" She took my bottle and filled it half-way, and handed it back without looking at me. I asked her why she wasn't supposed to fill up a customer's water bottle, and she said ""Because street people will start coming in here in hoards asking for water."" This sounded a little bit paranoid, and frankly quite discriminatory against the so-called ""street people."" And whatever was going on in her mind at the time, there was no reason to be so rude to someone who just bought a smoothy from her, and tipped her! This whole thing was really weird. I don't know why woman with blonde hair who works at Cafe Cole was so unfriendly, but this is the third time I've been here and there is really no reason to ever go back. The woman with blonde hair who works at Cafe Cole should quit her job and do something that she might enjoy. Pros: serves smoothies Cons: mean people work there more

i frequently pop in this place to satisfy my afternoon caffeine cravings. its a cool cafe in an awesome location, the staff is wonderful, very helpful, high spirited and friendly. this all sounds great right? the only problem i have with this place, is the owner. every time im there, he always seems to be lurking in the shadows, barking orders at his employees. so rude. and one time when i was in there a girl that was working there was helping a mentally ill customer, she was laughing and talking to him about his day and so on, and the owner walk in and tells the man to be quiet and just glares at his employee!!!! who does that?? i was in shock. HUGE turn off. guess ill have to find another place to get my afternoon cup. Pros: awesome staff and location, good coffee Cons: owner more