« Cafe Costa Rica | Main | The Continental »

Caribou Coffee

Update: This location is closed (thanks BT!)

In a word: There's nothing to it.

The specs: #0250!
Address, hours & details via Isthmus; review by Linda; official web site.

JM ate a sugar cookie and cinnamon roll with an apple juice.
Nichole ate a chocolate muffin with a dark roast.
The bill was $8, or $4/person.
JM gave Caribou Coffee a B-; Nichole gave Caribou Coffee a B+ (see our grading rubric).

Latest Caribou Coffee news and reviews

If Nichole had said to JM on their wedding day that he would go to every coffee house in Madison with her, he probably would have left her at the altar. The difference when you let a guy think of something himself is amazing.

Anyway, Caribou is another nondescript and inoffensive chain coffee house. The store has a ridiculous (Nichole would prefer to say whimsical) woodland motif with lots of rustic wood paneling, pleather chairs, and the cutest bear-shaped footrests you'll ever see.

Breakfast

Caribou has an adequate selection of non-coffee drinks, which JM of course appreciates. The bakery was more attractive to the eye than the palate: the chocolate muffin was somewhat bland, but they did get the top-to-base ratio right (2:1, top of the muffin TO YOU!). Both JM's cookie and his cinnamon roll were quite dry, which is what to expect from a place that makes their dough (so to speak) off the drinks.

The coffee was extremely hot, which would be a boon to commuters. After 20 minutes or so it was cool enough to enjoy, and the house dark roast proved to be a sturdy, decent blend.

All this adds up to a chain coffee shop that is a great alternative to, say, Starbucks if you've got no other options (like in Hudson, WI). But here in Madison, where high-quality local shops with fair beans and good non-Sam's club-esque bakery are springing up like mushrooms, you can do much better and you should.

Comments

Feed You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the comment feed for this post.

Excuse Me!
Hudson has Starbucks, Caribou, Three Hats, Hudson Bagel, Dunn Brothers, Mugs and Suds (coffee house in the am and beer stop in the pm), Daily Grind as well as at least two commuter coffee shacks. Plus Perkins serves special coffees.

You guys are so burned.

The cinnamon roll is MUCH better if you heat it up a little bit in the microwave...

Oooohh....scawy.

Nice post, anonymous. D'you like to yell "fire" into a crowded theater and then sneak away?

So what? Did you know Domino's Pizza was founded by a guy who is now building a Catholics-only groupthink village? That he supported (and ostensibly still supports) Operation Rescue?

Gonna check up on all the national eateries to see who's behind the curtain? Or just the ones you think might frighten people unwilling to actually investigate your fearmongering?

Well, whichever one got there first, I think the ultimate message is clear (in the paraphrased words of Adventures in Babysitting):

"Don't f*ck with a librarian."

The Fitchburg location is no more. I just found out yesterday but I was close to ten weeks late on this one: http://www.isthmus.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=42168

The comments to this entry are closed.

NEWS

Listen to The Corner Table podcast "Remembering Restaurants," aired December 24, 2020, where Chris and Lindsay talk with us "about the menus and memories left behind when restaurants go away."

Madison Food coverInfo about our book Madison Food: A History of Capital Cuisine is here, or read it for free thanks to the library - print & ebook.


SEARCH EATING IN MADISON A TO Z

BROWSE EATING IN MADISON A TO Z
OUR FAVORITES


About Follow madisonatoz on Twitter Contact
Blogroll Ad 
Free Blog
Read our book and food tour
Dish du jour Creative Commons License subscribe to RSS Subscribe
Memo to restaurants Bloggers' Rights at EFF Quizzes
Reflections BlogWithIntegrity.com Tip jar
Banner image by Kayla Morelli, Red Wheelbarrow Design