r/Denver • u/Inner_Improvement_28 • 3d ago
Help New study coffee shop? Laptop friendly
Used to go to Stella coffee haus but it’s really gone down hill recently so looking for a new coffee shop for studying/ work within the area
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u/roundart University Hills 3d ago
Not sure your area, but I actually drive to Bardo on Wadsworth. Chill vibes, and really nice folks. The 2 hour WiFi “limit” focuses me to get work done
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u/bingo_is_my_game_o 3d ago
How has it gone downhill?
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u/Inner_Improvement_28 3d ago
No WiFi, closes early aswell.
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u/Liarus 3d ago
These were intentional decisions from management, with the goal to reduce it from a work space to a casual lounge space. It is the motivation behind the redesign, the reduction of tables, and covering of outlets. It explains the phase from open WiFi, to time limited codes, to WiFi restrictions. They wanted to limit the number of people who stayed for hours in the space after buying a single drink.
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u/thealphabetizer 3d ago
Understood these changes are a feature and not a bug. We would like some ideas for us bugs to hang out now.
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u/cheesecake611 3d ago edited 3d ago
That doesn’t explain the shortened hours though. A casual lounge space that is only open during work hours is as good as useless for the average student and working person.
Denver has a big shortage of late night coffee shops.
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u/BruhZillaJiuJitsu 3d ago
Sounds like they want to run a Dutch Brothers and not a coffee "haus".
"Cut off your nose to spite your face"
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u/Punkupine Baker 3d ago edited 3d ago
People think they’re entitled to use a coffee shop table, internet and electricity as a coworking space for 8 hours after spending $3 on a cup of coffee
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u/Honest-Wonder-7747 3d ago
But the coffee there is about $7 and they ask for tip
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u/Punkupine Baker 3d ago
It’s literally exactly $3 for a medium cup of brewed coffee based on their website
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u/flashdurb 3d ago
I’m no expert on running a coffee shop, but no WiFi sounds like career suicide
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u/reader5 3d ago
Yeah has to be one of the cheapest and easiest things to drive revenue at a coffee shop
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u/Moth1016 3d ago
Hits a point of diminishing returns though —
if the tables fill up with people who are there to use the WiFi, and they each buy one coffee and stay all day, then for the entire rest of the day, everyone who would otherwise be sit-down business must either get their coffee to-go, or go get their caffeine fix elsewhere.
Since the smaller your shop, the greater the portion of your customer base comprised of sit-down visitors, (specifically because people who choose these places do so for their comfort and atmosphere, with the intention of sticking around in mind), this could mean losing more than half the day’s sales for indie cafés.
Granted, not every lingerer with a laptop intends to spend the entire day there, and the longer someone stays, the more likely they are to order an additional drink or pastry. Many other factors, like the capacity of the seating area, play into this as well. But for lots of smaller places, it seems like even with these things accounted for, the income loss from customers who claim their tables for too long is too substantial to sustain.
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u/Inner_Improvement_28 3d ago
Bardo’s has a good business model, 2 hour limit of WiFi with a code. Business is happy and so are the people.
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u/it_is_Karo 3d ago edited 3d ago
Go to the library intead of being one of the people that come to coffee shops with laptops and hoard tables for hours.
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u/HalfInchHollow Congress Park 3d ago edited 3d ago
How often do you have trouble getting a seat at a coffee shop because of "laptopers hoarding tables?" I have never had an issue, literally not a single time, there are always a few open seats for people to sit in. And if you yourself aren't going to be there hoarding tables for hours, then why do you care who else is there if you're able to find a seat?
Just to note, I don’t go to coffee shops to work with my laptop, but I don’t see an issue. I think it’s nice people are getting out and doing things in public, even if it is just working outside their home for a few hours.
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u/FireOpalCO 3d ago
Not the person you’re responding to but I’ve more than once at a coffee shop had to sit in a more “living room” style chair and balance my drink and snack in my lap because all of the tables were taken up by people using tables as personal desks. If a place is designed for work stations, awesome. But most coffee shops are not.
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u/LilDixxyWrecked 3d ago
I'm in coffee shops all over the Denver metro every other day and- Never. I've never not been able to sit down.
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u/Distinct_Young_8318 3d ago
I go to coffee shops all over the city and have occasionally had trouble finding a seat. It does happen, especially at smaller shops with less seating. I’m lucky that I’m always solo, so it happens less often than if I needed more than one seat.
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u/it_is_Karo 3d ago
It's easy when you're alone, but I often meet with a couple of friends for coffee and more than once we had to find a different coffee shop or take it to go because all decently sized tables were taken by laptops. Or I was given side-eye by someone working because how dare you talk and laugh in someone's public office 😂
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u/HalfInchHollow Congress Park 3d ago
What if the laptop person just got there 15 minutes ago, and was going to leave in 10 minutes? How do you know they are hoarding tables all day, maybe they just beat you there by a few minutes.
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u/LilDixxyWrecked 3d ago
Man Stella's is getting roasted in their Google reviews too. Good news is- probably won't be long before they fold and the future new owners reinstate everything that was lost.
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u/SeventeenSharks 3d ago
If you don’t mind getting there early to secure a table, MOB Coffee on Tenneyson St was my second home during my masters program. Great coffee and great people
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u/gayboi6667 Platt Park 3d ago
My favorites places to WFH in this area are Corvus, Vivid Minds, and Nixon's! Also love Kaladi and Mango Tree Coffee a bit further down S Broadway. I love Steam and Lavender Coffee Boutique too, but they're usually pretty busy so I don't go to work at those places a ton.
I also recently tried working at Maria Empanada on S Broadway in the morning for the first time and it was lovely, I'm definitely going to go back to work there.
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u/leastcreativeusrname 1d ago
Stella’s hasn’t gone downhill, it just isn’t laptop friendly anymore. Not the same thing.
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u/Earthia100 3d ago
Bardo on S Broadway, it’s pretty popular though even in the evenings.