9475 Clarence Center Rd., Clarence Center, NY 14032
Web: Clarence Center Coffee Company and Cafe
Phone: 716.741.8573
Rating:
[learn more]Pros:
One of the area's nicest coffee shops in ambience and quality of specialty drinks, offering a nice menu of legitimately good lunch foods. A standout on variety, with especially excellent mango smoothies.
Cons:
Standard drip coffee is thermos-served and weak; food quality can be a little inconsistent. Small venue size occasionally makes for limited seating and parking.
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"Like Spot Coffee, this is one of those local coffee shops that obviously surpasses Starbucks in drink quality and consistency, yet remains semi-anonymous due to its location."
July's Taste of Buffalo was when we first tried and fell in love with the Clarence Center Coffee Company and Cafe's Mango Smoothie, an outstanding summertime drink that we noted in an August taste test was worth driving out to try. During the past week of WNY coffee shop reviews, we realized that we hadn't really discussed the Coffee Company enough, and decided to remedy that with a quick review today.
If there's any short phrase that we'd use to describe this small restaurant, it would be "consistently good, and surprisingly charming." There's an almost perpetually crowded coffee counter in the front of what feels like a converted house in the middle of Clarence Center, with a small, cozy dining room in back, its tables spilling out onto a veranda and an area near the parking lot. Inside, the Cafe has the aura of a rustic cabin that's been decorated by world travelers - amongst other things, Russian nesting dolls, Buddha statues, and African art are intermingling in shelves, display cases, and the walls, hinting at the visits the owners have reportedly paid to exotic locales to source their ingredients. During the summer, the outside tables accommodate an overflowing crowd that's sometimes just visiting for drinks, at other times for live music.
The coffee ranges from okay to very good. Least impressive is the drip coffee ($1.38/small), served from thermoses and apparently intentionally brewed to avoid any hint of burnt beans; it's on the weak side. But freshly made hot drinks, such as the Vanilla Latte ($3.55/large, shown) and Cappuccino ($3.05/medium, shown) here, are if not exemplary, still entirely satisfying; the Cappuccino was strong and had plenty of foam, though not the standard two-thirds ratio, and the Latte was very pleasantly syruped and properly balanced in coffee, vanilla flavor, and sweetness. A large list of flavored syrups, ranging from the predictable chocolate, vanilla, hazelnut, mind, and toffee types to varied fruits, butter rum and butterscotch, and sugar-free versions, are also available; they can be used in $2.75 Italian Sodas, as well.
As it's cold out, however, we've been sticking with the warm drinks; to that end, we also enjoyed a Red Tea Chai ($3.75/large, shown), one of several variations on the traditional Indian spiced tea, here made with South African red tea leaves, honey, vanilla and milk. Sweet and hot, with nice foam and a dash of spice on top for effect, the Chai was almost as good of a hot option as the Mango Smoothies are on the menu's cold side. To expand modestly on our prior comments on the smoothies, it's hard to imagine beverages with more mango flavor or apparent freshness than the ones served at CCCCC. As noted in the previous mini-review:
The standard Mango Smoothie, sold for $4, is superior to the one that we had loved at Taste of Buffalo - served from the Cafe's countertop, it had less need for overbearing ice, as there wasn't as much of a melting risk as at the day-long Taste event. That left the mango with a greater opportunity to shine through, and it did, flecks of the fruit now dominating each sip with a flavor that was so intensely, truly mango that we realized we probably had not done this fruit enough patronage in the past.
We were told by a girl behind the counter that the Wildberry version was better, and on a subsequent visit, we found out. The Wildberry, served red to the original's orange, was a tango of competing flavors, for one second letting the mango dance on the tongue, the next a more tart, familiar red berry flavor, swapping positions from sip to sip. Better? No. More complex, and interesting? Perhaps. With a mango smoothie that's so good, competition from another flavor is at best a nice alternative, and at worst a distraction.
Other menu items are also compelling. We've been hooked on an Italian Veggie Panini ($9/whole, $5.25/half), served on nicely toasted herb focaccia bread and loaded with sauteed shiitake mushrooms, peppers, and mozzarella cheese. This sandwich is consistently at least very good; the bread and sun dried tomato pesto were both better when last we ordered this dish in the fall than it was when we re-ordered it this past week. Salads, including the standard assortment of Greek ($8), Caesar ($8.25), and tuna ($8) options, are quite good; there are also wraps, cakes, and dessert-like breakfast snacks at generally reasonable prices.
Like Spot Coffee, the Clarence Center Coffee Company and Cafe is one of those local coffee shops that obviously surpasses Starbucks in drink quality and consistency, as well as the availability of other light lunch menu items, yet remains semi-anonymous simply due to its location; while it's in a cozy, pleasant location within Clarence Center, you'll need to go out of your way to visit unless you happen to be in the immediate area. We hope that the proprietors will take a lead from Spot and expand their local footprint; places this good should be more accessible.
