Borders Cafe / Seattle's Best Coffee

coffee + pastries + books

475 South Lake Avenue, Pasadena, CA 91101 (map it!)

A coffee shop. A book store. Students milling about. What did you expect? :)

Seriously though, this is a SBC hidden inside a Border's; sadly, they no longer have the Borders Cafe, which was far better in my opinion. Nonetheless, this is a reasonable option for coffee/snacks on a busy day in South Lake Pasadena.

9am-11pm except Fri/Sat 12pm

created: Thursday, June 21, 2007 (PST)

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Food / Service

Their coffee is pretty typical; nothing exotic, but they do have clones of most of the "premium" drinks that you might get at the other big coffee chains so you can pretty much get your caffeine fix any way you want it.

They sadly no longer serve the delicious pretzels that Borders' Cafe once did; their new pretzels are much more bready, and not stuffed. Aside from that, they have pastries and cookies, as well as some limited sandwich offerings.

Environment / Ambience

There's a medium-to-large bookshop, which has dedicated a corner of its first floor to a coffee shop. There are several tables, and also comfy lounge chairs, but you have to get there pretty early to beat all the students who study there.

There's a pleasant outdoor patio which has seats both overlooking South Lake Avenue and also hidden away in a little alleyway (quieter and more private).