Flipnotics at the Triangle

Just wanted to let everyone know that I went by there today and it is sadly very, very closed. (Nothing inside, sad note on the door). Too bad, I really liked that place. Guess it is my own fault, since I haven’t been there in a few months.

Since I don’t really venture South of say Riverside… I can’t compare this to the first one.
Met someone here for a quick cup of coffee last week. Service was fast and efficient. My café au lait was great… cuz I like chickory. She made sure to ask before she made it. Cool… I guess enough people think that whatever Stabuck’s spews out is the definitive answer. Not true… look up grande one day and you’ll see.
Since it was 10am on a Thursday, it was easy to find parking and I zipped right in. It was all good. The coffee got me buzzing so no complaints here.

Walk in. See a guy sitting on a bench stand up and walk around to the counter. That should’ve been enough of a sign to keep Nicky B away. But no, Nicky B is reasonable and understands that workers like to, well, not work. So he goes with the flow and orders his Chai Tea latte. Okay. Nicky B pretty much loves all coffee shops because they usually are good at making the one drink they are dedicated towards. I’m sorry, but WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT? The chai tea latte tasted like warm, flat, pepsi. It was really, really, not good. The only good thing there were the half-​priced brownies. Which probably were sitting there longer than I would like to know, but hey, at least they tasted like they were supposed to.
Now, I know what you’re thinking, maybe I was the lucky customer and got some ‘special ingredients’ put into my coffee. I mean, after all, coke was made from coke so Pepsi can’t be far off… NO! That was some straight up nasty-​ness!
Nicky B really wanted to like the coffee. At least there was a brownie. & is out.

Ugh. Ugh.
It took at least 5 minutes for my order to be taken at the counter. Then I lunged at a smoothie that came out of the blender 5 minutes later.
TWENTY minutes after that, someone said, «Oh, did you ever get your shake?»
«Umm, nope.»
I think it might be in the blender now, but one can never be sure.
Plus their Internet connection is awful. So bad I’m using some other random network I found rather than theirs which couldn’t even load
.
Second update: It took another TEN minutes for my shake to come out, and the Internet connection got so bad that I couldn’t load ANY pages.
Too bad. I’m demoting it by a star.

i like to pee here.
they have a public restroom.
when i am at the farmers’ market on wednesday nights —
in the grassy part of the triangle,
i sometimes go here to… ummm… relax.
no, i’ve never ordered anything from here,
so i can’t comment on that.
but the fact that they don’t hassle me when i pee is 5 stars.

I’m going to be overly judgmental on this one, with apologies to those who spend their days here, but…
You are:
* A vegan stoner girl who likes hip hop, edgy graphic novels, and has an ankh tattoo, probably somewhere in the arm or ankle region. 1996 frequently calls you and asks for things back.
* some upwardly mobile transplant from california who wants to meet some burner chick and have something pseudo-​wild go down. You think the outcome of the triangle’s zoning was the best thing that could have happened to that space.
* completely unfamiliar with any other coffee shop in the universe.
This place is for you.
What the hell is with the name anyway? It’s all a bit pharcyde. Or like I can go in some back room and buy a Pink Floyd blacklight poster and a new blackberry all at the same time.
Oh, and the wifi is flaky too.
Edit: annnnd guess which location is now closed. FTW!

The staff is friendly. They pleasantly addressed the customer in front of me who was, by any measure, a loopy bitch (and I reserve that term for very select occasions). Good for them.
But I can surely do without the rest. The guy yapping on his phone about widgets and John Mayer; the couple who left an entire table full of crap (there is, quite clearly, a bus bin); the conversation about real estate. It’s sorority girls and chooches.
I’m all for transit-​oriented development and mixed-​use, but in the end this just feels like a fancy strip mall. And yet, Quacks, Flightpath, and Epoch manage to cultivate a sense of place in shopping strips.

Flipnotics in the Triangle is my least favorite coffeeshop in Austin because the interior space is small, the tables along the wall are close to each other, they have a $ 4 credit card minimum, the music isn’t that pleasing to me, the tables are too low for the chair height (at least for the table I occupied), and the entrance is narrow and sort of forces you to make a decision and order stuff immediately as you enter. Mozart’s, for instance, has a very open layout so that you can find a nice table, put your stuff down, and then order.
I can’t really focus well with this kind of background music, too (like at a lot of coffeeshops in Austin). Right now, the Beatles’ song «Lady Madonna» is playing.
They do sell a variety of sandwiches, empanadas, and cakes as well as the usual drinks. The sandwiches are all $ 6+ which seems expensive. The drinks are cheaper than at Mozart’s. I also didn’t receive any change for my purchase – it was a small amount, but even if it’d been a penny, I’d still want my change.
The overhead lamps indoors are quite dim; I wouldn’t read a book under them.
The barista was friendly. He also told me you could get unlimited refills on my iced tea. You should ask that about whichever drink you get. The only iced tea they had was hibiscus mint (the magenta one).
Parking here was hard to find so I had to park all the way in the parking garage and walk here with a heavy backpack. The view was nice, though. There’s a nice park in front of the apartments.
I hope the Barton Springs location of Flipnotics is better.

I thought I’d switch up my normal routine and try this place to do some work. I went in around lunchtime, so I ordered a lunch of about $ 10, and put it on my credit card. I sat down, ate, and then decided the place would suit my needs to get some things done. So I returned to the counter to order coffee and was told that I was below the credit card minimum and would need to order something else.
As you, gentle reader will see, this will be a common gripe from me:
Visa and Mastercard both flatly – and VERY EXPLICITLY – prohibit merchants who accept their cards from charging minimum fees or transaction fees to customers. Businesses can negotiate out from under this standard prohibition, but how many do you think actually do? Businesses: if you don’t want to pay transaction fees to accept credit cards because you can’t afford to do it without passing on the costs discriminatorily to credit card users, then DON’T ACCEPT CREDIT CARDS.
I was a bit put off by this, since I just spent $ 10 on food and the minimum they were charging was $ 4. I returned to my seat and sent an email to the manager, informing her of what had occurred and bringing to her attention both the Visa and Mastercard merchant agreements (both are available on the respective companies’ websites). I received no reply. Because that was my first experience with Flipnotics, they didn’t have enough customer loyalty capital with me to burn this much of it and expect me to go back. And I haven’t.

I spend a lot of my time sitting around coffee shops. A lot. And typically end up in Flipnotics once a week.
The coffee here is fairly good, but is nothing exceptional. They have your typical choice of coffee treats to go along with beverage; scones, muffins, brownies, etc. But they always taste slightly stale. This may be because I never show up before 3pm, but when you’re trying to add stuff to your bill so it’s over the $ 4 credit card minimum, I’d enjoy it more if it tasted fresh.
Since it is in the Triangle, you are faced with the mess of parking depending on when you show up, and are presented with the option of driving back and forth to find ground level parking, or driving to the other side of the complex to find garage parking. They have a front patio, but it’s like sitting in front of a shopping complex, with nothing to spend your time looking at other than cars.
You can find free wifi after registering, and the staff is always nice. If only it didn’t have the feeling of a shopping center.

I’ve only been to this location 2 or 3 times and I can’t say any of them were really that memorable. I do remember ordering a coffee shake the first time and having it take them about 15 minutes to make it. And we were only 2 of 4 people in the entire place. I didn’t get what the problem was.
The ambiance is nothing like the original location, but it does fit the Triangle vibe. Very cold, clean and modern. That’s neither good nor bad to me. It’s just not like the original.

great staff, perfect coffee, and of course beer and wine.

Standing to order my brewed coffee and breakfast taco, I felt squeezed by the coffee service area right behind me. The front entrance was crowded and needed rearranging. Newspapers were scattered. When there was a lull, I asked the sweet, cute barista if I could move some things…
Just the plant in the walkway to over by the window and the chairs, let’s line those up symmetrically by the plant and place the little table square in front of the sofa. Yeah. Better. I also recommended the coffee service area be moved down the wall towards the seating area. She liked the idea and will suggest it.
I could now enjoy my coffee/​breakfast taco experience with the mister who patiently waited at our table. The breakfast taco was very good and made by Satellite. Ghandi looked down from the wall and watched me sip my coffee. Flipnotics has a cool vibe – eclectic and comfortable. I ask you – where else would someone be allowed to rearrange furniture?
A special note on the barista, Liz: So very nice. Accommodating. Perky. Happy. The best. I will be back because of Liz’s coolness and to *gently* suggest they get rid of that one lone red umbrella in front. It’s distracting.

My dog gets 5 stars because she’s my dog (and she’s a fox). El Arroyo gets five stars because its my place… or at least it was at one time… like Cheers for Norm. Quality Seafood for their Tuesday nights. Nubian Queen’s for Lola and her food.
Everyone has their own 5 star criteria. And I’d venture to say that it varies depending on the needs of the person.
That said, if I just dropped in on this Flip location (as I did my first time), I probably would have given it 3 stars. The coffee is ok. The atmosphere is just ok for a date and not so good for people watching.
But the roomie and I started doing an almost-​daily coffee shop tour. We get up (in separate rooms) and go work at various coffee shops for the first few hours of the day. We’ve hit several but I find that we keep coming back to Flipnotics at the Triangle.
And that’s because for working, it’s 5 star. The coffee is good. The staff is friendly and awesome. They bring around samples now and then and are friendly and helpful. The seating is good for working (lots of «back to the wall» seating for us dudes that are ready to throw down in an instant). Good lighting, music, wireless, snacks, and outlets.
The turkey Panini I had for lunch was awesome. Not huge (I could have eaten one the size of Rhode Island), but really garlicy avocadoy good.
And I should have known… we see the same people here every time we come. People who have made this their office or study hall. i love how it is always like almost empty during the day but I hope that they get enough business to stay open.
So for dates (whatever those are) or to watch for people with «Hello Kitty» tats, go elsewhere. But if you need to get some work or readin’ done, hit Flips. You’ll find that you’ll just keep comin’ back.
PS We’re here now on the stage. Don’t fear the beard. Say hi.

I may visit this place again in the future and revise this review, but for my first visit I was distinctly unimpressed.
The main downside was the barista on staff. He claimed to be new, but was the only one holding down the fort, which seems to be pretty poor judgment on the part of the management. He was nice enough, but didn’t know what some of the drinks on the menu were and completely forgot one of my drinks until I came back to the counter to ask about it.
There was also the issue of the piped-​in music, which changed from something inconspicuous to horrid «crunk» (or similar) soon after we arrived. After suffering through it for a bit, we were told by the barista that they weren’t allowed to change the music. Mysteriously it changed back to decent stuff when another employee showed up for a brief while to check up on things.
As for the drinks themselves, their chai was a brand I knew I disliked, so I didn’t try it. I got some Mighty Leaf tea which was, of course, the same as it is anywhere else. The smoothies were ok, but nothing to write home about.
One high point of the visit was the chicken & avocado quesadilla that we got. Granted, it was a bit light on the cheese, but it was otherwise quite delicious.
I might try this place again, hoping for an experienced barista, but this time around I was not overly impressed.

I’m secretly kind of glad that this location is getting mixed reviews. Because I’m hoping that will allow me to keep it ALL TO MYSELF.
It’s relatively quiet. The music is good, but not blaring. The atmosphere isn’t as cozy as Flipnotics v.1.0, but it still feels Austin-​y and laid back. I love the retro vibe, the huge mural of Barton Springs, the rocket ship/​space theme. Chai is delicious — rich in chai flavor, perfectly sweetened. I’ve had it both hot and cold, and both are terrific (I recommend it with the soy milk if you’re taking it cold… sooooo good!). Great selection of proteinous food, including sammiches. A little lacking in the cushy chair department, but at least the chairs for the table seating have cushions. Perhaps it’s an indicator of my age, but if I’m going to camp out for hours working, I likes me some padding for ye olde behind.
There is a $ 4 credit card minimum, so either plan on either bringing some cash, some friends, or an appetite/​thirst that needs quenching. Also, the wi-​fi requires you to sign up to get a free Less Networks account. However, this is painless and basically instantaneous — and once you’re on, the signal is strong and fast.
I’ve covered most of this above, but I feel obligated to break out my usual coffeehouse report card:
— Cushy chairs: B-​. The table seating is cushioned (except for the big bench against the wall), but I really wish they had some easy chairs for curling up and reading. There is one couch by the door, but it’s in a weird spot away from everything else.
— Atmosphere: A. Retro-​meets-​Austin-​meets-​outer space. Just my style.
— Free Wi-​Fi: A. Strong signal, consistent, pretty fast.
— Service: B+. Fine, just nothing to write home about.
— Non-​coffee drinks: A. One of the best cups of chai I can remember drinking in Austin. The caffeine from one mug is propelling me through a Saturday of working, with some energy for Unilocaling to spare.
— Things to eat that contain protein: I haven’t tasted any of it (I ate before I came here), but they do have a good selection of sandwiches and empanadas. They get an A– for selection, but the jury is still out on flava.
— Things to eat that don’t contain protein: B-​. I’ve tried the pecan pie and the cinnamon rolls here. Neither were outstanding, and the cinnamon roll was kind of dry.
The punchline: My new favorite place to camp out and work away from the office. Just don’t all of you come fill it up. Like the rest of Austin, I want to freeze it in time so I can enjoy it just the way it is, progress be damned.

Dearest Flipnotics Café au Lait,
When I lived in Austin, I had very little money, and any that I did have went to booze and cigarettes.
For that foolish negligence, I apologize.
Now that I live in a different city, have a career (and a steady paycheck), have quit smoking, lost all tolerance for alcohol, and have become addicted to coffee, you, my long lost friend, you are the one that I wane for now in the morning when waiting in the long line at Starbucks.
Whatever love and magic culminates your being makes my insides warm and fuzzy, not only because you know that I like my coffee burn your mouth hot, but the perfect amount of sweetness you add makes me blink in slow motion longingly at the plastic sippy lid for the next taste.
Flipnotics Café au Lait — how I love thee. you are perfect in every way. From your consistent milk vs coffee ratio to the plain non-​discript white paper coffee cup — you fill my belly and soul with goodness.
It would not be the same if I could have you everyday. I longingly await until we are again reunited.
Love always,
Masami

Please don’t compare this with the one on Barton Springs. The different location warrants a different vibe. It’s got a slightly urban feel with stained concrete floors, brushed metal details, bold wall colors, a great mural collage of all things Austin; but at the same time it feels cozy, comfy, and the acoustics are great, with a focus towards the stage. This Flipnotics location, as my boyfriend voiced so perfectly, is built for live music.
Reasons why everyone should love this place:
– the FREE Bad-​Ass MUSIC: Matt the Electrician & Southpaw Jones on Thursdays. They were so good my friends couldn’t believe that they didn’t charge cover. (They do take donations please!) Matt (cynical, smart-​assed, but uplifting music with a Tom Waittish voice) and SouthPaw Jones (sounds kinda like — «they might be giants» with a comical-​autobiographical self-​loathing tone)
– the CHEAP HAPPY HOUR (4 – 7): Half price all coffee drinks, wine, and beers. I don’t have to fight traffic or stress about finding a parking space here. So I actually do arrive in time for Happy Hour…
– the EXCELLENT SERVICE: No pretentiousness, no «you’re not cool enough» attitude here. This is a counter service coffee shop, but on several occasions the staff has gone out of their way to deliver my food and drinks to my table and cleared it while i’m enjoying the show. Definitely didn’t expect that from a coffee shop.
–GREAT FOOD STUFFS: Solid coffee, sandwiches, desserts, and of course the Moonquake Shake (espresso blended with bananas and ice cream).
Basically, it’s like a girlfriend moved in with Flipnotics and cleaned him up a little, got him a haircut, and different clothes. He’s much more accessible to new people who visit cause he’s clean. Underneath it all, what matters the most is the laid back vibe, great Austin musicians, and yummy coffee & nosh. Go chill and hang out.

I was waiting for rush hour to die down so I decided to stop in today after running some errands near campus.
I’ve never been the the original Flipnotics so I have nothing to compare this place to except itself… but anyways, I feel that it’s definitely in the an awkward part of town. You don’t get the same ‘local coffeeshop culture’ if the establishment is located in an apartment complex shopping center. Bleh.
They offer a great Happy Hour deal from 5−7p that features half price beer, wine and coffee beverages. Since I am still a poor college student, its a great way to get your daily caffeine intake or alcoholic buzz if you so desire.
I ordered a Café au Lait — which was probably the best one I’ve had in town so far to date. Maybe because they used a sweetened milk, it certainly went down smooth. No complaints. =)
And to compliment my drink I had a Samosa empanada which was very tasty. On a sidenote, Flipnotics buys their empandas via La Boca Empanadas, a local vendor.
Overall, I think the place has repeat value. Remember to stop in for their happy hour for the best drink deals!

Meh.
When I close my eyes and think of the OG Flipnotics, I envision many things:
the back patio built into a hill.
the dingy diner flooring inside.
the tree-​house feeling of the space.
the thrift-​store mugs you get your coffee in (once I got the Oreos one).
the stickers and magazine cut-​outs placed by years-​worth of bored and creative employees.
the idea that when you’re in South Austin, you can just say «Flips», and the folks down there know exactly what you mean.
When I opened my eyes at the Flipnotics 2.0, I saw none of these things.
Imagine granola with no oats. Migas with no eggs. Queso with no chips. Barton with no springs.
Two stars because they have an interesting mural of said Barton Springs, and my buddy said his drip coffee was OK. They also had the lovely Miss Erin Ivey on stage playing guitar. I bought a beer that night, and the transaction with the cashier was awkward at best; she kinda just couldn’t figure it out.