E Street Cafe

Great little local coffee shop. Nice place to sit and enjoy a lovely and delicious cup of coffee or a tea (large variety of teas).

Now closed — went downhill since my first review… RIP

This place is now closed.
There is a lesson here. When revenue drops, you should find out why. Fixing bad service with high prices will not solve the problem. As the service deteriorated, the prices got higher and higher. It’s no surprise they went out of business. A regular medium sized cup of coffee should not cost $ 3 when it’s already overpriced at $ 2 over at Starbucks.

I’m here right now at 2:30 on a Thursday, and it’s packed! This coffee shop is big with lots of tables with chairs and some with stools. It’s a great place to work on your laptop, seeing as how almost everyone in here is doing it. I do like that there is no music playing at all (just my personal preference.) My only complaints are that it’s hot in here, and since it got busy, the internet has gotten much slower.
Overall, a great place to work.

NOT THE WAY TO TREAT CUSTOMERS or GET ANYONE TO EVER COME BACK
Seemed welcoming enough with live music and good atmosphere. But the heat and stuffiness immediately became suffocating. I waited on the sofa while my daughter bought an overpriced cup of coffee (almost $ 8 for a latte with soy) Over by the kitchen, a man was giving me a disgusted look and eventually came over and yelled at me to take my coke can outside. Yes, I had an empty diet coke can sitting by my purse because I was going to recycle it.
Treated me, a well-​dressed mother of 3, like a homeless person who wanted to sit on his broken down couch and soak in the atmosphere while I waited for my 18-​year-​old daughter to get her EXPENSIVE drink. We left feeling insulted and vowed never to step foot in this establishment again.

E Street is a great place for a first blind date — that first awkward meeting with the person from the internet you’re just not sure about… will your conversation last beyond Hello! There are many seating options ranging from comfy couches to traditional tables to barstools set around high tables that are perfect for hiding your fidgeting or texting under the table. E street sponsors live music events throughout the week — super fun (yes you can dance — it’s just a little tight). It can also be a little loud for a long flirtatious conversation. If that’s your objective, sit in the booths by the counter — the walls will provide a little more sound separation from the stage area.
I’ve fallen in lust with E Street’s chai lattes (an early game-​night/​date surprise from my current beau of 3 years) and love that I can nose through the loose-​leaf tea options without staff telling me to bug off. The gluten free snack options are limited, so if you need eat that way, plan for dinner afterward — if the date works out pair eating with a stroll around downtown Encinitas (always fun!).
Note — evening hours are being cut back due to low attendance. E Street needs help! Call ahead to confirm late night hours… or plan for a mid-​day visit. All the better to see your date in sunlight!

«Open mic Tuesdays,» are awesome time to just unwind and listen to raw local talents! Employees are super friendly.
It is too bad, their [operating] hours varies night to night — call beforehand!

Really like this place. Had a half sweet Baja Latte, very pleased. Also tried a Nirvana Ball (? think that was name), an energy type bar thing– soooo good!
Nice comfy couches and wifi

Always hot. But anymore. Nice in here today. Need a few more behind the counter. Tons of customers for just two hard working friendly servers. Wifi is passworded and changes. I’ve been coming here since 2005, it is usually pretty well full of laptop users and low voices talkers. Good place to surf, read or visit. The baked goodies are not that good. But they look great. Coffee is so so. Why the three? I want to see if it keeps up to today’s standard.

I used to live in Encinitas, and I spent a lot of time at E Street Café. In fact, I even hosted a Poetry + Spoken WORD event there for awhile.
E Street Café was always a real highlight of Encinitas to me. The space is very expansive, with huge ceilings and really good acoustics for open mic events, which they have a lot of (especially a long-​running music open mic on Tuesday nights that features some very talented performers). The wi-​fi works well in there, and it’s included with a purchase. You can meet some very cool and interesting people in there, and there are some really comfortable couches to lounge on, in addition to many tables.
The staff at E Street Café is great. They play cool music, they serve really good coffee and tea, and they do a great job of just making the whole place feel funky and free-​flowing and alive — the way a good coffee shop should feel.
The food is good too. The quiche is often very good, and a lot of the pastries and muffins are excellent as well. They have these really good «bliss balls» you can get near the register sometimes. I’m not sure exactly what’s in them, but they’re good. And probably pretty healthy too.
This is also a great spot to meet for a date or a business meeting, and you’re bound to see a bit of both going down if you drop in at E Street Café. Check it out. It’s a very cool, vibrant, original and sweet spot.
Oh, and the coffee is pretty good too.

Good coffee and teas, my favorite coffee shop in Encinitas with a Seattle vibe. As others commented, really nice layout. If you want to listen to the live music (like jazz with some Brazilian notes this past Sunday) you can be seating just across from the musicians and people in the back of the local would just hear it very mellowy without intereference with their laptop working (or whatever they do with their devices there). I like the feeling of old and classic with a touch of hipster and surfer boy in relaxing mode (even more!). Everybody is friendly and the music is always great.

This is really cute coffee shop, love the environment inside and around the shop. I can see parking being hard to find on certain days (I came on a Sunday afternoon) but I was able to find a spot easily right behind the shop. I don’t think this place has ac which was a bummer to me because it has been sooo hot and humid the pass couple of days. Fortunately they have some tables outside that reach their wifi so it was totally fine.
This place has live entertainment which is cool and lots of tables and couches to get comfy on!
Best thing about this place is the service! The two guys that served me were super nice, I wanted to get the Baja latte (coconut, almond and cinnamon) but they ran out of te coconut so he whipped me something else which I liked a lot and he was so friendly! Especially the older guy! Super nice and cool people.
The prices are a little more expensive than other coffee shops. They have so many yummy pastries, definitely should try them out.

I’ve come here occasionally to get my coffee and a pastry. People have been nice to me whenever I come here, plus it’s great to get free wifi and live music while you drink your cup of joe.
Try out any of the cobblers and pies. You won’t be sorry. Place is deceptively spacious. A great place to meet friends. :)

Great coffee, helpful staff, cool ambiance. I dig this place, and the fact that it’s just a bit off the busy streets of Encinitas.
BF and I stopped here for a mid bike ride snack. I had a SF vanilla soy latte that was a foamy cup of sweet heaven. P had a cherry turnover and the fresh squeezed oj. $ 8.xx total. The turnover was good, better than Starbucks but nothing to come back explicitly for, the ok was tasty, a small cup (6oz) for $ 1.50. All in all they make a good cup of Joe, the food is good and the staff are sweet. I’d say it’s worth a stop, and def better than Starbucks.

Good coffee, mellow vibe. I always come here before heading to the breakfast spots on Encinitas Blvd. But they have so many options I get overwhelmed and just order an Americano. One day I’ll be brave and try something different!
Seems like it would be a cool place to escape and come read a book.

The coffee is decent enough (even though they regularly get my order wrong). The live music is nice. Free wifi. That’s where the good things stop.
This place used to be such an awesome place to come meet friends and hang out. The service used to be pretty good. It used to be run by really unique and interesting people who were easy to relate to.
However, the past few times I’ve come in, I’ve been treated with so much rudeness and I’ve felt really unwelcome. It’s like the employees don’t believe in treating their customers like human beings anymore. We’re just sheep; they try and get us our coffee and send us on our way as quickly as possible.
A few weeks ago, I met a friend there. We stayed for a while, just catching up, and ended up ordering some fruit and yogurt. 15 minutes before closing, a redheaded guy came up to us and said, «Hey if you guys could just finish this up, we’re about to close.»
I was a little bit offended because he was pretty rude about it. I felt like he was practically pushing us out the door. Sure enough, 15 minutes later, the guy stands up on a platform and makes a speech about how they were closing and he asked us all to leave.
That was pretty surprising to me because where I work, we’re all about service. When we close, we just close around anyone who’s still there and we don’t act annoyed when they take a while to leave.
But WAIT FOR IT… That was nothing compared to how that same employee treated me tonight. My boyfriend and I were taking a nice walk on the 101. We went to Berry Happy, I got some melon at Whole Foods, it was nice!
Then we sat down at an empty table outside E Street. It was deserted outside, so it’s not like we were taking up space that someone else needed. The same guy came outside and asked if he could get us anything to eat or drink. We said no, we were okay.
He stood over us with his thumbs pointed to either direction like his body was telling us to get the hell out. He condescendingly said to us, «Well… my tables are for customers only. Also, we don’t allow outside food. Please don’t eat that at my tables.» And then he briskly walked around the corner, without even an «I’m sorry, rules are rules.»
I was so shocked that someone would talk to us like that! Not just because he was working and should’ve been more respectful to customers. I would’ve been offended if anybody talked to me like that! Nobody should treat people that sarcastically and make them feel stupid.
Also, «MY tables»??? I’m sorry sweetie, I didn’t realize these tables belonged to you! Had I known that, I never would have had the audacity to eat my bowl of melons at your precious, precious empty table. I honestly did not know what to say. I left my fork, just to spite him.
I wish I could say I’m never coming back here, but Encinitas is sleepy so there aren’t many cafes around that are open past like 7. My friends will probably end up back there eventually. But if I ever see that ginger guy again, SO HELP ME GOD.

What a fantastic place! The paninis here are GREAT.

Good service, decent coffee. I come here because it’s close to my work. It’s also got a nice atmosphere. I dig the art they have on the walls. It changes periodically, but there’s always a neat thing or two up on the walls.
They have some cool eats here. They have a homemade bran muffin with different berries. They have a raspberry version and a strawberry version, I believe. Both are fantastic. I’m not the biggest fan of muffins, but these are really something else.
Negative: $ 5 minimum to use card.

My neighbor Robin’s son told us about this place, so we checked it out this morning. I can see why he likes it. It’s a very 20-​somethings kinda place, mostly guys, a lot of them at little tables on their laptops. This place sorta looks like it was transported here from the 1970s with updated aspects.
Quite ample seating, lots of tables and some couches, sort of an L-​shaped place, with the bar and ordering at the back. They have mostly (dreamy) pastries, cupcakes, cakes. Then they have a small selection of lunch-​type items.
Robin and I both had the «flat» sandwich. It was like a wrap but on very thin (thinner than a pancake) type flat bread. Vegetarian (not vegan) filled with eggs, cheese, avocado, tomatoes, onion. It was DEELICIOUS. I will definitely be back for this. All the ingredients were incredibly fresh, it was just very tasty.
The people are all very nice, very down homey kinda place. Robin also had some kind of chocolate ball thing that was made with cocoa and honey and chocolate and whatever else, quite good (but definitely a honey taste). My caffe latte was not spectacular and next time I will tell them to leave off the honey. I ordered a caramel latte ’cause then you don’t have to put in any sweetener. But they put in honey without saying anything and it was too sweet for me.
One caveat. The parking suuuuucccks. Don’t try the lot alongside the café because none of the spaces are for the café and you’ll get towed. We found a place on the street but I can imagine at peak times it is really hard to park on 2^nd street or on E.
But nice place, I WILL be back… mmmm shoulda got another flat sandwich to bring home.

Pretty cool coffee shop!
This place has a lot of character and is actually pretty spacious. I noticed a lot of people hitting this place up for some studying time as most of the tables were occupied with laptops and books.
We ordered a mocha and a peanut butter cookie.
I only craved the PB cookie and it was ok — just enough to satisfy my sweet tooth.
Looks like they have a small stage for musicians to play, which I’d def want to check out one day.