Cappucino's Torn Between Coffee Shop and Restaurant

Sitting inside Cappucino's, you would never imagine this place has a drive-through. it's a fascinating hybrid of sit down restaurant and drive-through coffee shop.

On the coffee shop side, they have free wi-fi to get people in the door, plenty of tables, and a sign encouraging people to seat themselves. The exterior wall has all the accoutrement's of a coffee shop, complete with a bakery case full of sweets, racks of syrups and noisy machines. You can see cars pull up outside the plate glass window, their doors level with the painted words "Now Serving Homemade Breakfast."  The opposite wall is decorated with fourteen paintings by local artists, all for sale.

The rest of the open room is filled by eight booths lining the walls and another eight tables filling out the dining room. They give way to some semi-private spaces leading to the back entrance. In the main dining room, Cappucino's is all restaurant. Tables all come with ketchup, mustard, Tabasco sauce, salt, pepper, jelly and tea sweeteners.

Outside, pulling up to the drive-through, I’m sure it feels like any other coffee shop. Inside, this is much more a restaurant with a coffee-shop grafted on to one side than a coffee shop that that happens to serve food.

To my surprise, the menu was a lot more pork-tastic than . Six of the eight omelette's came with bacon, sausage or ham. The egg breakfasts, pancakes and French Toast all came with the option of four strips of bacon or two sausage patties, though you can substitute ham if you prefer. Coffee shops often cater to the vegetarian and light eating crowd, but at Cappucino’s, the breakfasts are all hearty, stick-to-your ribs fare.

For comparison purposes, I was tempted to mimic my Ham 'N Eggs meal of  hash browns and pancakes, but another carby morning treat tempted me away. I gave in to the siren song of French Toast but kept eggs and hash browns as the side for the sake of a fair comparison.

The portions at Cappucino’s are remarkably huge. In addition to light fare, I associate coffee shops with modest portions. I believe they sliced an entire yukon gold potato to make my hash browns. There was no way I could finish the entire dish. My six triangles of French Toast were equally daunting.

I decided to start with the scrambled eggs since that was the only dish that wasn’t the size of a boat anchor. The scrambled eggs were remarkably fluffy and light, though completely unseasoned. Throw on a little salt and pepper (or Tabasco sauce and ketchup if you roll that way) and they're a good protein filler to eat alongside carbtastic sweet options such as pancakes or french toast.

The hash browns were honestly a little disappointing. These were basic, Waffle House style shredded potatoes thrown on a grill with a dash of oil and left to brown on one side. They had no seasonings, nothing special to add flavor. I loaded on salt and pepper and mostly ate the crunchy bits.

The French Toast came as three thick slices of cinnamon bread obviously soaked in a freshly made batter right before being thrown on the grill. I am not a fan of the sugary cream cheese filled glorified donuts in the shape of toast triangles that some places try to pass off as French Toast. Cappucino’s made French Toast the way it was meant to be - a couple of eggs  whisked with some milk, vanilla and cinnamon before the bread was soaked in the mix and thrown on a grill.

In a coffee shop advertising wi-fi, I normally expect to feel comfortable camping out at a table and working on my laptop as long as I diligently pay rent on my space in the form of one drink per hour. Even though I spent significantly more than the cost of a drink, my waitress was clearly impatient to get me out. While I was typing, she asked if she could bring me an iced-tea to go before I left. When I said no, she asked how much longer I'd be. At  my look of surprise, she quickly said, "Oh, no rush." Only a quarter of the tables were occupied.

That said, she did manage to get food to my table incredibly fast. If you're in a hurry but want a full sit down breakfast, this is a good, filling option.

My total came to $12.99 plus a $2 tip. She could’ve earned significantly more if I’d felt welcome sticking around to order my drink an hour while I worked.

The menu is affordable with hearty portions, though it errs on the bland side. If they can decide whether they want to be a coffee shop where people are invited to linger or a restaurant where turnover is prized, I’m sure the service will adapt and improve. I didn’t end up trying any of the coffee shop options. As a restaurant, I give Cappucino’s a B-.