On the recommendation of a friend in Austin, I went a little out of my normal routine to try Lola Savannah coffee.  Too far away from home and office for a regular pit stop for me, but it does have an excellent location near 360 and Mopac.  The only downside I can see is the extremely limited parking (not much of a problem first thing in the morning, but I’ve been to Grove Wine Bar next door and parking at mealtimes is tough).

Lola has a feel that is somewhere between bar and coffee house.  The color palette is coffee house, but the bar setup implies you might want to have a glass of wine in the evening.  The furnishings are a combination of leather seating and modern surfaces.  There are coffee bags decorating the ceiling.

A view from the back of the coffee lounge

But down to the main event. The coffee. I tried a double cafe mocha, and it was fantastic.

A double cafe mocha

It was rich, but without getting overpowered by the chocolate (even at the bottom of the cup).  The foam on top was just right (I noticed it, but it didn’t interfere with drinking).  They took the time to do a little foam art as well (always a nice touch that says either “you’re special to us” or “we’re just that cool we can do coffee art and still make money”…).  There are some pretty awesome looking desserts in the display case, but it is 8am.  I had heard (via Yelp) that there were good breakfast tacos, but I didn’t see any, and this blog is about coffee anyway, right?

Bonus points for having power plugs scattered about inconspicuously.  And more points for commenting on my shirt (a picture of a coffee cup running on empty with all kinds of warning / danger signs – a bit like your laptop battery display).

Yelp Reviews are overwhelmingly positive. The Lola website has a little “virtual barista” to recommend coffees to you if you’re not sure what to order.  I’d recommend just consulting the barista though…

Yelp is known as a controversial force in the restaurant business.  But most of the publicity (lately) has been negative.  It also produces positive articles about the restaurants that are reviewed on its site, however.

I recently received a Yelp email reviewing coffee shops in Austin and it gave me a few new ideas to try:

• Austin Brevita
• Anderson’s,
• Geniune Joes

It also recommended Flight Path, which I’ve been to before (back when it really was on the flightpath, and it was so noisy when a plane went overhead that you couldn’t think).

I’ll have to try out the other locations (they’re on my list!).