Pannikin Coffee & Tea

Amazing pie. Unbeatable tea selection. Fantastic coffee drinks. What more could you possibly want?

This is an FYI. The ladies who ran the G street location have opened a new place in Uptown under the name Hessian Global Goods. 4034 Park Blvd.

Extremely rude staff and way overpriced for the below average merchandise and food. Take your money and spend it at any of the other fantastic shops in the area.

Well, it doesn’t surprise me that they’re closed.
I can remember going here in the 80’s when I worked downtown. Loved it and bought their delicious coffee often. Then, the founder/​owner sold the various locations to different people. This post relates only to the G Street location.
The downtown G Street location was sold to a pair of women who probably shouldn’t have been in a profession that calls for public relations. As others noted, the shop got increasingly kitschy, focused more on unrelated merchandise than to coffee, tea, spices, and kitchen items.
It is interesting someone else mentioned the Dia de los Muertos ornaments/​figurines. One day, my wife and children were in the store and my wife took one of the figures, a skeletal ballarina, off the display tree and handed it to my daughter. When she realized what it was she was startled and dropped it.
I immediately went to the counter and apologized and one of these ladies snapped, «You have to pay for that!».
«O.K.», says I, «that’s why I came over to you — how much is it?»
«Thirty one seventy five!», she said.
«Yes, I know that’s what it is marked», I said, «but can we discount it as it is in more pieces than could be repaired? — it’s just going in the trash».
«No. Thirty one seventy five», she repeated. Now we all know retail markup is up to 100%, and I’d have been happy with a token 10% as a gesture of good faith. Nope… getting that extra $ 3.17 out of me was more important than anything as trifling as a long term customer.
Lovely people. As noted, it is absolutely no surprise to me that the place closed. Given my experience, naturally, I never went back, and a customer of over a dozen years was decisively lost by their treatment that day. Makes me wonder how many like casualties they piled upon this once successful business.

What Happen To My Favorite Tea/​Coffee House?
Does Anyone Know.
I Stopped By Last Week To Pick Up A Few Things And The Whole shop Is Empty? :0(I LOVED THIS PLACE!

CLOSED?
Loved this place but drove by yesterday to find an empty window front and for rent sign. Sad!

I’ve been going to this place whenever I’m back in town since the early ‘90s. I’ve noticed a lot of rough reviews here. I’ve been back and here at least once a week for almost a year now and have got to clear a few things up. The twins from England who run this place are such characters I guess there are many people who don’t get them or their humor. They always seem there to help to me, there’s just not a fake bone in their bodies.
Character is the main word to describe this shop. I have seen few unique stores such as this with such great eclectic style and goods. I have in mind a shop in Soho, one in Paris and yeah, you could definitely throw in bizarre kitsch in to the mix. It makes for such an interesting place to go! From rare handmade goods from Africa, to stylish coffee and tea service items for the home… you get a bit of a feeling of stepping through a kaleidoscope. All of the seemingly disparate goodies expertly organized into these fabulous displays. Am I the only one seeing this? If you take the time to look around, you’ll be surprised. This is a high end /​rare goods type of shop with lots of humor and a few raw edges.
And the coffee and tea quality and selection are unmatched. Everything is small batch roasted on the spot, so the coffee you buy is extremely fresh and the taste is impossible to beat. There’s also a selection that is larger than anywhere else I’ve been, including spices. I buy herbes de Provence and whole nutmeg there, too.
My suggestion, give yourself a few minutes to walk around. Get a cup of tea or coffee on the spot to drink, listen to the low-​key world music and RELAX. You will not get a high strung reception but at the same time, the twins are well traveled and have lots of knowledge to share about their stuff. And if, like me, you like to be left alone while you shop until you’re ready, it’s perfect!

I’ve been in here a few times. I have never been greeted at the door or while I’m wandering around shopping. I’ve never been asked if I needed help, instead these two women (I use this term loosely) sat behind the counter snidely judging whether I was going to steal something or not. The cold front coming from the check out was enough to make me want to leave. The last time I was there they called the cops on a guy who had turrets. They told the cops he was smashing things up in the store. When the cops arrived he was merely shopping and they just didn’t like him. Clearly I will not shop there again. I refuse. Eff them and there discriminating ways.

I just read a review that said, «staff always greets you with a smile.» Are we reviewing the same place?
I had always wanted to go into this store, it looks so cute from the outside. My boyfriend and I were going to the Lululemon store a couple blocks down, but they weren’t open yet. What a perfect opportunity to check this place out!
As we walked in we were both intrigued by their selection of coffee, but first we wanted to browse. We started looking around the merchandise (which in reality is over-​priced junk you could buy in T.J.) and we saw a cute dios de los muertos bride and groom. One of our friends loves dios de los muertos knick knacks so my boyfriend decided to take a pic. Suddenly a voice yelled across the room, «NO PICTURES.» No pictures?! Really?! Is this precious knick knack going to be damaged by the flash of an iPhone? I think not. And typically, if a store doesn’t allow photography they have signs posted. There was no such sign posted and now, coming on Unilocal,I see multiple pics of the crap they have for sale. We continued browsing for a few minutes and left, without checking out the coffee.
I’m not sure why we were barked at. It was a Saturday morning and there was no one in the store. One would think the owners (or whoever these women were) would want to make a sale, even if it’s just a cheap T.J. knick knack. Apparently not. Instead they decided to alienate their potential clientele.

4-​star selection, 2-​star service. If you are just a little too excited about coffee or tea, you will have a hay-​day at Pannikin. Not only do they have a large inventory of imported coffee and loose leaf teas, but they’ve got all the trinkets to accompany your beverage of choice. Tea pots and cups, kettles, french pressers, and other accessories you never knew existed. You wont find cheap, mass produced junk here. Most of the items are unique, hand-​made, or just plain cool. The space is large and well organized so browsing is a breeze.
I do have a problem with the attitude I get from the staff here, though. I wish they were as excited about the store as I am. Recently, I was in SD for a short business trip and made time to stop by Pannikin to stock up on loose leaf tea. I could have easily gone to Whole Foods or Peets, but I wanted to support the locals. I showed up about 5 minutes before closing time. Another couple was racing to the door at the same time. Obviously people are devoted to this place. The door was already locked, but we saw someone coming to let us in. Yay! Well, actually, she came to ask us what we were planning on buying… as if we had just come to browse and waste her time. We enthusiastically rattled off our list of items we’d come for, and mentioned that we were from out of town but were big fans of the store. The woman was not impressed or sympathetic.“Sorry, we’re closed”, and that was that.
Really? is business THAT good, Pannikin? Can you afford to turn away loyal customers who travel from afar to give their business to you? In this economy, locally-​owned businesses should be willing to go the extra mile (or stay open the extra 5 minutes), or risk losing business to a more customer-​centered establishment. Think about it, Pannikin.

This Pannikin Coffee & Tea is like «Night and Day» compared to the other Pannikin Coffee & Tea shop I am accustomed to going to.
I’m not knocking this place because I’ve always believed that each restaurant (or Coffee Shop for that matter) should have it’s own personality to it. The Pannikin has the feel of an old Thrift Shop… like something out of the low-​end of a Swap Meet. There were little do-​dads for sale and I found even the little Gangster Action Figures to be very humorous.
As for my coffee… I ordered a drink called the Jimi Hendrix. It wasn’t bad, but to be honest, I’ve had this drink before at the other location in La Jolla. Maybe it was me… but then again, maybe it wasn’t, but I found the Jimi Hendrix to be a little bit on the weak side.
I’m trying to make excuses because I actually like the Pannikin (in La Jolla) but I can’t…it is indeed like «Night and Day» when comparing the two coffee shops… I think I’ll just stick with the one in La Jolla.

Coconut tea and champagne cordials. ‘Nuff said.

After breakfast on Saturday, BF and I were going to go to Starbucks, until I spotted Pannikin across the street. I figured we should try something new. This place looked unique, and I was hoping they would have good coffee.
We walked inside and I felt like I was on an episode of Hoarders. WOW! There is a lot of crap in here! I’m all about having a funky/​unique/​well decorated business, but this place was a bit much.
When we walked in, we both thought maybe they were just a store that sold coffee beans, because there was no sign of coffee actually being served here. There was a lady sitting on a couch when we walked in, and she said, in a very deadpan tone, if we needed help to let her know.
We walked towards the back and we saw a tiny little laminated menu with coffee on it. Okay, so they do serve coffee. Out of nowhere, another woman appeared behind the counter and asked what we wanted. I went with a white mocha, BF got some sort of blended mocha drink.
While we waited for our drinks I walked around and looked at the massive amounts of tchotchkes they sell. Very random place.
We got our coffee, we paid, we left. My BF’s blended drink was pretty good, my white mocha was nasty. I ended up dumping it a few blocks later.

I like coffee and I like tea… I like knick knackery and I like to pee…
Bought a Mexican Hot Chocolate that had four shots of espresso and a dash of milk in it… AWESOME. And bought my friend’s child a $ 1.50 wood carved, hand painted top. If I didn’t, I’d have had to pay an extra .50 to use my debit card… this way the top was only a buck!
Anyway, very cool store with very cool items, coffees, teas, and an assortment of random stuff. Perfect spot for random ass gifts for friends… hard to find stuffs that are sure to impress and never be returned!
Very nice.

I hate this Pannikin. All the others are friendly cafes. This is a thrift shop. Hate it.
They charge you a fee for credit transactions. This is totally unacceptable at a coffee shop anymore.
The fat twins that own the store are not very friendly, which is consistent with what I read here.
Also, they’ve got some stupid war going on between them and the coffee shops around them.
Avoid this location of Pannikin like the plague. I will never patronize this store again and will be telling my friends and colleagues to follow suit.

Good Selection of teas. But, the two ladies that work there are not the happiest pair (of twins I think.) For prrof, look at the caption of the only picture– He got «yelled at» for taking pictures. Come on grumpers have some herbal tea and relax already.
I suggest that you keep walking and go to Zanzibar across the street! then, you won’t have to sort through the knick knacks to find your coffee cup. Trust me!

I rank coffee shops by the taste of their mochas. Yes, I love chocolate. Yes I like good espresso, but can you produce a good mocha? Well, these ladies certainly can. When I go to the East Village I generally stop at the Pannikin and buy a Mexican mocha. Hot or cold. I love it.
The store is very colorful. I spend a bit of time looking at the innumerable amount of saucers and tea pots, tea spoons and books.
I also like their selection of European chocolate, i.e., Orange Kit Kat, yes you read correctly: Orange Kit Kat.
The shop has morning and afternoon hours, and it is unfortunate for me because I work regular office hours and I cannot make it in time to buy a mocha after work.
Great place to buy your coffee beans too.

oh my gosh! I walked in SO confused – thinking I had stepped into one of those specialty toy shops oozing with gifts from all over the world, and all i wanted was a cup of coffee!
Well, they definitely sell all of those specialty gifts, but the coffee was SO good, and the napkins had pink elephants on them. PINK ELEPHANT NAPKINS. Yes, I’m quite obsessed.
I will say that there isn’t much space to loiter and pretend to read, there doesn’t seem to be an area to plop yourself down and act busy while updating Facebook on your apple-​book, and you probably won’t find a spot to sit quietly and look pensive. At least, I didn’t notice much of a sitting area.
Whatever, good coffee, and I get to feel like I’m walking into a toy store. PERFECT.

LOVE this place for the offbeat wacky quirkiness (65 different kinds of loose-​leaf tea strainers, anyone? A one-​hitter moka?) and excellent, bold, on-​site roasted coffees. (As noted, they roast them on the sidewalk in front of the store).
Two friendly women from Newcastle and Vietnamese or Nepalese music are likely to greet you, and get a pumpkin spice muffin too.
Miniscule complaint department: I’d prefer a wider cup for a cappuccino instead of a regular-​style mug, but I’m thankful that at least it’s not paper.

This is a review for the espresso based drinks only… as I found the store a great collection of «stuff», well worth a visit. And the gal that served me was nice, but obviously, her talents don’t extend to coffee. So if you’re looking for a Stumptown, Vivace or Barefoot experience… don’t look for it in downtown San Diego. I was told this was a long time location, well knowledged in coffee. I figured they were SCAA members and a qualified specialty coffee retailer. I was sadly wrong.
I asked for a traditional cap’, but the gal serving me, I don’t believe, knew what I was talking about. She asked if I wanted a double or single. For a 6 oz. finished cap, she could have only started with a double extraction. And I asked that she do a short shot at that. What I got was an 8 to 12 oz. finisihed drink. Worse than that, the milk had a distinct «sodium taste», telling me that the boiler is way beyond needing a good de-​scaling. Even though the machine and brew group were hidden behind the counter, I’m guessing that the machine, overall, was not cleaned, and the coffee was improperly extracted.
What this location needs is a trained barista, or minimum, a technician that can fix the Astoria and do some training for the staff. Add this dissappointment to Lulu’s Café a half hour earlier, and I’m again reminded that San Diego doesn’t have one decent Third Wave coffee shop.
— — — — - Update 08 08 09 — — — –
Correction… if you’re willing to consider South La Jolla to be «sorta» San Diego, then «Bird Rock Roasters» is a very good Third Wave Specialty Coffee House. They’re right across from a Starbucks. If you’re close, Bird Rock is one of the better coffee houses. BTW, they roast on premises.