Our next coffee outing on a warm July morning took us to Inklings Coffee & Tea in Pleasanton.
Located in the center of downtown Pleasanton, Inklings Coffee is a great coffee spot to enjoy a cup of coffee and offers an environment perfect for work.
A Place to Read, Work and Enjoy Coffee
Interior of Inklings is like stepping into someone’s home library. Imagine a book room inside a huge mansion, that’s exactly how it feels. Its the perfect place to work, read or just to relax. There are plenty of available seating. We weren’t sure if it was because it was a holiday weekend and people had traveled out of town or if it was because it was late morning, but we were happy to see a open seats when we arrived closed to noon.
There were plenty of options in terms of seating: couch seating, 2 top tables, big “communal” tables. That combined with amount of open seats make it the perfect if you want another setting to sit down and chill for a while.
A “Library” Serving Devout Coffee
Now for the most important portion, the coffee. It’s important to remember Inklings Coffee isn’t a roaster; they use Devout Coffee, which is no stranger in the coffee scene in the East Bay. We’ve had Devout Coffee from their original location and their new Renegade Coffee location, both in Fremont. (Check out our Renegade Coffee post here!)
Knowing that, we had high expectations since as we are fans of Devout. We got a latte and an Italian Macchiato. They were both excellent; both are smooth, aromatic, not overly acidic. Though interesting, they are serving everyone in to-go cups. While we think its more hygienic, it does detract away from the whole coffee shop experience.
Maybe skip the pastries…
We saw on their ordering site that they serve Firebrand pastries and we also had high hopes for the pastries. However, this is where this coffee spot fell apart. We got an almond croissant and a Kouign-Amann. Again, they are served with to-go bags. Knowing that it was later in the morning, we did not expect super fresh pastry items. After taking the first bite, we knew that the pastries were at least a day old. They were stale. Tasty, but stale. We understand that it might be a holiday weekend and various bakeries might not be delivering. But serving stale pastries is another thing.
Inklings also serves salads and other items on their menu. When we were waiting in line, we overheard the person at the register say to just grab a prepackaged salad from the cold case. So we decided not to take a chance at ordering salad only to be told to grab a grab-and-go salad.
Overall
In summary, Inkling Coffee is a great place if you live in the area and is in need to get a coffee and a place to work, read or just chill. We love the interior and the overall aesthetic. But overall this coffee shop feels more like a retail shop than a bespoke cafe. Our suggestion is to go there for coffee only if you’re in the area, but skip the food.
Inkling Coffee and Tea
530 Main Street, Pleasanton, CA 94566
