Coffeecito House is a coffee shop in downtown Riverside that just opened on Dec. 1. One thing that makes the shop stand out from its competitors right out of the gate is its location. Since 2020, the owners have been hard at work turning a home built in 1900 into a bright and welcoming coffee shop.
When first arriving after the 10-minute drive from CBU, your eyes will quickly notice the distinctiveness of the building, with its traditional, old-fashioned home. Coffeecito can easily get crowded, adn as I made my way to the front of the building I noticed the line went outside the front door and around the porch.
After some time there were only four people ahead of me and I was able to notice the bright and minimalist decor of the inside of the coffee shop. It took around 25 minutes to finally order. The menu has many options: coffee, teas, house-prepared energy drinks, pastries, and breakfast and lunch meals. When ordering, I recommend speaking up more than you naturally would, as it gets pretty loud in the area. I had to get in line a second time to order my drink as I didn’t realize the worker didn’t hear me when I ordered my drink because I only got the two pastries I ordered; the cherry blossom and Lainey lemon.
After ordering, looking for a place to sit wasn’t easy either. This may have been due to the rain, but there wasn’t much seating outside, especially for the number of people in line. The upstairs has a few areas to sit, but with such a big crowd, there was no room up there — a small table by a window opened after a few minutes.
The pastries they sell are very sweet but still good, depending on the sweetness you prefer. Personally, I found their iced drinks to have a better flavor than the hot drinks. I ordered one of their seasonal hot drinks, the Skinny Vanilla Almond Delight, and a simple iced vanilla latte. The hot drink to me seemed to have too much flavoring in it, causing an aftertaste that I didn’t care for. At the time I went, they were sold out of most lunch and breakfast items. Their bacon and egg bites were requested by multiple people in front of me, but they sold out of the popular items fast.
The number of people and the volume of conversations were both high, so I wouldn’t recommend this as a coffee shop to study or get work done. However, it could be a great place to check up with friends at the right time.
With the crowd Coffeecito receives, it seems like many people are checking them out or are very fond of the coffee shop. After checking out their Yelp reviews I noticed multiple people mentioned their excitement to try out Coffeecito House but experienced sold-out food, and the crowdedness caused them to say they either wouldn’t come back again or stated it was overhyped.
I find the building to be very lovely but don’t find the actual business to be good enough for me to come back often. From my experience, it was very crowded and hard to enjoy my food and drinks. Coffeecito House is a place to at least visit once but there is no need for it to be a person’s go-to coffee shop.
