Ancora Coffee Roasters

In a word: Great coffee, if you like that sort of thing.

The specs: #0006
Address, hours & details via Isthmus; reviews at Cap Times, Dane101, Yelp, Isthmus; Ancora home page;

Latest Ancora Coffee Roasters news and reviews

JM ate two chocolate chip cookies and worked the June 1981 Atlantic Monthly cryptic crossword.
Nichole drank a mocha.
The bill was $6, or $3/person, plus tip.
JM gave Ancora Coffee Roasters a C-; Nichole gave Ancora Coffee Roasters an A- (see our grading rubric).

Since we opted for a non-dinner branch of this Madison coffee house chain, we missed out on the generally good soups and sandwiches that they offer. JM  has an aversion to coffeehouses (he doesn't drink any kind of "grit water") and was disappointed not to see milk on the menu, and didn't ask despite Nichole's nudging to just do so.

JM's cookie was like plywood. Even Nichole concurred that it was too hard and crumbly and had a weird spicy flavor.

Her mocha, on the other hand, would definitely be worth getting again - on par with Michelangelo's, not quite as flavorful as Dunn Bros., but better than Espresso Royale's and far better than Cuppa Joe's.

And - this is the best part - the barista took 25 cents off the 12oz price for Nichole's travel mug, which is indeed 12oz. Attention Madison coffee houses: if you want to get on Nichole's shit list, insist that a 12oz travel mug is 16oz and either charge more or fill the cup with, like, 9oz and charge for 12. Nichole knows bloody well how much her travel mug holds. Baristas should either be familiar with the capacity of common types of mugs or should please listen to the customer. Jeebus. Thank you for listening.

Comments

[Jarocco]

I just recently found your website and have been enjoying catching up. But I have to comment on this review of Ancora. How can you go to a coffee house when you don't like coffee is beyond me. Why not bring a coffee drinking friend if only one of you is going to drink coffee. And a cafe mocha, while tasty, is not a true test of whether Ancora makes good coffee. They do. Best in Madison. But I think this review was a waste of time.

[Ken]

@Jarocco -- In defense of Nicole & JM, this was one of their EARLY reviews -- 2004 or 6 years ago in fact -- back when they were "learning the ropes" in how to do restaurant reviews.

That being said, I wouldn't mind if they "re-reviewed" some of their early reviews [where they gave lower ratings to places that are STILL considered very good], to get a more accurate impression of the place.

[nichole]

This was in fact only the sixth place we went to. We won't re-visit places, ever (good God, when would we be done?) but that's one reason we keep comments open for years: to let more voices add to the conversation. So, thank you both!