Whenever my wife and I travel to some place new we look up the best rated coffee shops online so we know where to go for a really good coffee. We had a few 2 day work related stays in San Jose in August / September. My wife found this place online and it sounded pretty good. Our flight arrived early on Tuesday afternoon so we drove the rental car straight here. It’s a re-purposed gas station as the name implies and they’ve done a good job working with the lay-out.
A few tables and chairs inside including a bar counter plus stacks of tables with large umbrellas on their huge street facing patio. A friendly dude took our order for 2 lattes with 2% milk & Hazelnut Syrup in porcelain cups. Our lattes were made by 2 different baristas named Derrick & Nina. We picked them up at the counter and sat inside because it was a bit hot outside. Our lattes tasted fabulous with a rich creamy flavor. My wife liked the Swan latte art in hers. They use Verve Coffee Roasters from Santa Cruz here. New to us but we liked the flavor. We thanked the staff and said we would be back on Thursday. As we were leaving a uniformed San Jose Police Officer walked into the outdoor patio.
But all the focus was on what he drove up in and parked outside. It was a 1964 Plymouth Fury with a 6.2 liter V8. Pretty cool and it’s a fully operational police car. I had a quick chat with Officer Rich and my wife took a pic of us. We thought this place was really good ! My wife and I hit this place for the first time last Tuesday soon after our flight from San Diego landed. The reviews were great and they had some food too. So we enjoyed our first visit for lattes and came back on Thursday morning enroute to the airport.
Derrick looked after us and made us great looking lattes again. We bought a nice pre-made Turkey Sandwich for lunch on the plane and my wife wanted a Chocolate Croissant with her coffee. While we waited an elderly gentleman walked up to the counter and we later found out he was Roy the founder. His grand children now run the business. They get their fresh made pastries from Golden Bakery in nearby Milpitas. We sat outside at a table under a large umbrella in the shade and enjoyed our delicious lattes. I got a sense that Roy’s is a community hub for people to get a brew, have something to eat, do some work on their laptop or have a meeting. This place has a nice vibe, great service & a terrific coffee / tea selection !
