A great non-chain coffee shop like Bolt Coffee, New Harvest, Dave’s, Little Sister, etc. is what you would expect to be adjacent to a 10,000 student university on their main “college town” drag.

First off, Aroma Joes is so ridiculous I can’t even believe that place exists. They call coffee “fuel”, everything is made out of plastic, the food tastes like airplane food. It’s a horrible experience. Even the logo—did they steal it from kid Pix? I’m transported back to 1992 in the worst way. Is this place a front?

Starbucks is fine, it’s Starbucks, but it’s a nondescript national chain coffee shop. My point is that usually great colleges have a coffee shop culture right around them. Thayer is lacking on this front and it’s glaring. The closest thing it had was Blue State, and Blue State was underwhelming.

I have a high bar for “good coffee shop.” That will annoy some of you who think Starbucks is awesome, and others will get it…