Press Cafe - Ithaca
Press Cafe
Description
Nestled in downtown Ithaca, this stylish café is praised for standout espresso, single‑origin options, locally roasted beans and attractive decor with outdoor seating. Fans enjoy excellent cortados, flat whites and a refreshing matcha salad, with generally quick service. However, experiences vary: some patrons report brusque, inconsistent staff interactions and serious allegations of discriminatory treatment, which temper recommendations despite the solid coffee and charming setting.
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Feedback
This is my favorite little café in Ithaca. It brings back memories of some of my favorite places in Brooklyn. The coffee beans they use are just right—not burnt at all—and their espresso is my favorite in the entire city.
I stopped by for coffee during a road trip and found a charming little café. They offer a wide selection of coffee and espresso beverages. I tried the Mocha Latte and a Cortado, both of which were outstanding! The service was friendly and prompt, making for a great experience. We had a lovely time here!
EDIT: After sharing my frustrations in this review, the same barista approached me uninvited, delivering a pre-prepared speech about how I was wrong for critiquing the coffee, and concluded by telling me to leave. I expressed that I felt very uncomfortable with her confrontation, as I had never experienced this kind of harassment as a customer before. Rather than attempting to resolve the issue, she berated me for asking my initial polite question and dismissed my experience, calling my comments “nasty.” I cannot recommend this business; they seem to prioritize their own fragile egos over valuing their customers.
Horrible service, not my first time here. After reading other reviews, it seems to be common for both baristas to be rude, impersonal and seem to be annoyed by customers’ presence. I told my friend who I was with that maybe they do it on purpose to give the shop “a flair”. The place is very cute but small which is why they rented out the place next door for more seating. I will not come back due to the poor service from both baristas, hopefully they improve it and are nice to everyone. Edit: After seeing the reply someone from their team wrote back to me, I had to lower to 1 star since I can’t do 0 stars. Truly unacceptable, clearly they don’t care about making things right and fixing their image. Claiming that I am trolling them and that I am the problem is the worst a business could do. Instead, they should apologize and offer correcting this behavior among their baristas like they did with another review. To their reply, there was a male-presenting barista and then a female-presenting barista came on and then the male-presenting barista left his shift, so in fact there were 2 baristas for a second. Happy to not be back to a place with rude staff and from what I can see in other reviews they have also been unpleasant to other patrons.
I’ve always had good experiences here so idk what others are talking about. Really cute cafe with great coffee that’s becoming my favorite place to hang out in downtown area.
