The Daily Grind

CLOSED! No longer open space is now for lease! Bummer!

Great place to meet friends and chat. The coffee is ok (they don’t claim to be coffee connoisseurs), and the food is good but they are often out of things. Staff is always friendly & the menu is good!

Never seems open but the coffee is alright. Not the best spot in town, but definitely not the worst. Always get an old antique feel when here, like everything is dusty. Not sure why.

The coffee was great, my latte was delicious. The food was great. Service was good. Nice atmosphere, great for a quick-​ish breakfast.

First off, I’m not a coffee-​drinker. In fact, I swore off all forms of caffeine over ten years ago. So how dare I review a coffee joint? Breakfast!
We were driving through on our way to see some large rock that happened to form itself into the visage of not one, not two, but FOUR presidents’ heads! How cool is that? Anyway, I am gluten-​free, so I held little hope for more than a scrambled egg and a sausage patty as sustenance. Instead, I saw that they had breakfast burritos and decided to ask if I could get that on a corn tortilla instead of a flour one. They were out of corn. But, the nice girl helpfully asked if I was asking because of gluten. Because if gluten was the issue, they had gluten-​free tortillas! But then she went to check and they were out of those. BUT, they still had gluten-​free bread! So I had a breakfast sandwich, like a normal person, with breadlike stuff on the outside and protein and veggies on the inside. I was so excited I even ordered a decaf coffee — to complete the illusion that I was a normal grown up.
Did you know that decaf has some caffeine in it, too? It’s not really decaf so much as «less caf.» I knew this already, so I only drank half a cup of it but I was buzzing the rest of the day. Until the crash, which almost resulted in a break-​up. But that’s another story. One with the moral of: don’t caffeinate and date, kids.
Anyway, those of you only looking for the best cup of joe might take exception to my review but you gluten-​free tourists take heed: things I cannot find in New York, San Francisco, or Los Angeles were mine for the asking in Rapid City.

Coffee was pretty standard — latte — 16 oz extra shot needed but no sugar was required so that was nice since I prefer to keep the coffee flavor pristine. Smooth & creamy w/​just a hint of bitter & I don’t mean that in a bad way
TONS of pastries in their cases & I embarrass myself at everything we ordered but it did get us through the entire weekend since our lodge room had no fridge… so here goes:
Cranberry Coffeecake — super moist even 3 days later & extremely delish
Brownie — chocolaty & declared yummy
Sticky Bun — moist even 2 days later & a decent ratio of goo to roll. More would have been better but I always say there can never be too much goo
Cheesecake Bar — this was so creamy & the graham cracker crust was so thick & cookie-​like & that’s right up my alley. Scrumptious!
Veggie Panini — let mine sit in the car too long & the spinach got all wilty & I just can’t do wilty spinach so picked it out & ate the remaining cheese & tomato. Came w/​Swiss & tomatoes w/​a pesto spread on a soft roll. Kind of reminded me of a Caprese sandwich
Overall, this place totally knows how to make 1 mean pastry & their coffee got us through the morning & was a delightful welcome to a fab vacation

I had already been to Alternative Fuel, the other local coffee shop in town. It was time to try this one. My work was done and I had a few hours to kill before my flight. So I stopped in here to start the morning before driving out to Mount Rushmore. It’s a nice comfy place. I ordered my usual 20-​oz latte and with it a peanut butter chocolate bar. Very good. Perhaps a little more upscale décor than Alternative Fuel but both good local choices for coffee, breakfast, and lunch.

I got a mocha here to stay awake on a sleepy day. I was running errands with a friend and not expecting anything special, just grabbing something to stay awake. I’ve grown to expect disappointment from my mochas. Usually it’s a coffee that tastes like it might have brushed by a chocolate bar once in a crowd a long time ago. So god knows why I ordered it.
But wow. This was delicious and chocolatey rich. The friend I was with said they used Ghirardelli’s chocolate. All I know is it was ridiculously good.
It wasn’t quite the atmosphere I’ve come to expect from a coffee shop but I liked it. It wasn’t either a bohemian living room or a Starbucks clone. A few things that stood out as unexpected: There were cereal dispensers on the counter (I noticed fruit loops). There was a big sofa facing a TV set to a silent sports game. A little girl who seemed to be there with her family was busy discovering that card board boxes are the best toys in the world. I’d give an extra star for the little girl but I doubt she’s a regular feature.