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Vintage Cafe
Rating Details »
- Hours:
Mon-Fri. 7:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m.
Sat-Sun. 10:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m.
- Price Range:
-
$
- Accepts Credit Cards:
- Yes
- Parking:
- Street
- Wheelchair Accessible:
- Yes
- Outdoor Seating:
- Yes
- Wi-Fi:
- Free
10 reviews for Vintage Cafe
"Vintage" as in vintage prices. You will not find better coffee or breakfast burritos anywhere else in Sac for such 1980's prices.
The folks are super nice and the ambiance is quaint and welcoming.
The flies are a bit annoying but I have not come across a coffee shop in Sac that is sans these devil insects. Blasted bug, why must you exist?
On the flip side, there is Charlie. The cute alien who just landed in the River City. If you're looking for good people, Vintage does not seem to be in short supply.
Cheap food, good ambiance, and tasty! I'm a happy customer and will be back soon!
Vintage Cafe is a great place to sit read a book and people watch. They have great pizzas and the staff is really a fun bunch once you start talking with them.
Great local gem that is waiting for more visitors to come and enjoy its splendors.
I was able to read all four Twilight books there and I couldn't have asked for a better place.
The manager always offends me with the smell of clove cigarettes, talk of high income, FREE TEA, eves dropping on my conversations; and the fact that the pizza tastes good is still making me suspicious.
Plus, some indie girl hanging out there told me I have nice hair.
5 STARS!
I returned to this cafe with a friend. We enjoyed their burritos. I had a breakfast burrito while my pal had a veggie burrito. I enjoyed a pleasant amount of veggies in my burrito. Since they served the breakfast and I count that as "having bread" I'll add another star. I am a fan.
1 Previous Review: Show all »
-
2/28/2009
Nice joint.
I had their espresso, tried their chai latte, and watched them hand-make the dough for… Read more »
Wandered into the Vintage Cafe after having dinner at Hashi. A crazy music promoter, Kevin, who introduced himself as the Sacramento Bill Graham, invited us in to listen to the band. Their set started w/ some cuban/salsa rhythms which degraded into some bad rapping. So my focus switched to the menu, which had some amazingly cheap prices. $4.50 for mini pizzas, one even had shrimp. Pabst Blue Ribbon beer was going for $1.50. If I lived in the area, I would definitely make it a point to have lunch there.
I don't think Vintage Cafe gets nearly enough credit. I really love this place, so much so that its become somewhat of a daily morning staple for me. Sure, its stucco exterior doesn't really convince anyone that its any more timeworn than the adjoining new-agey restaurant, and the occasional wafting scent of raw fish carrying over from Stonegrill can be gross at times, but golly is it cheap - and the employees are friendly, too.
You can get a cup of joe for about a buck, depending on how nice you are and whether or not you know anyone behind the counter, and the breakfast burritos, personal pizzas and house-made cookies are delicious. Try the chocolate chip cookies - the chips are more like giant saucers and, for 50 cents, you get a whole 'lotta cookie. Vintage also rotates local art on a monthly basis, and they've had some fascinating artists there lately that you probably haven't seen around before.
Yeah, Vintage Cafe won't try to butter you up with the talk of organic field greens and free-range chicken that is so de rigeur to most other coffee joints in midtown. Wait until you're driving a Volvo and living in East Sac to frequent those places. For the time being, be honest with yourself - you're broke, you're living in midtown, and you're too busy/unmotivated to cook for yourself or make your own coffee. Vintage Cafe is the poor man's Old Soul, and it's a little less pretentious, too.
So, if you like to get dressed up and sit at a coffee shop for a couple of hours with the sole intention of being spotted by Sacramento scenesters, don't go here. Then again, it's only a matter of time, isn't it?
Vintage Cafe is connected--both spatially and by way of management--to the abominable Stonegrill restaurant on the corner of 21st and L. My first visit, though pleasant, did little to excite me about the prospect of returning. Good news first: they do have both a strong, reliable wireless signal and comfortable chairs, which is more than can be said for Naked Lounge or Hina's. All the employees were helpful, friendly, and enthusiastic. North facing windows brighten the cozy interior, and do much to advertise an otherwise nondescript space. My latte and muffin were both solid.
VC gets its pastries from Dante's bakery on Fulton, and its coffee from North Bay Roasters in Sonoma. I had a latte and a chocolate chip muffin, and found each somewhat inferior to what is available through Old Soul, Freeport Bakery, or Bella Bru. I asked the (very friendly) barista if they had considered Old Soul as a supplier, and he said, "I know, right? Their pastries are hella good." Totally.
The term "vintage" can mean any number of things, and the design element reflects the unhappy ambiguity of the term. The decor is cheery and sparse, but thoughtless and haphazard. The color palette--bright reds and yellows, accompanied by gray tables and countertops--reminds one of McDonald's circa 2000. Kitschy metal advertisements are strewn carelessly across a large red wall. They do more recall the gristly, cluttered tackiness of Cracker Barrel than anything that is recognizably "vintage." One sign reads, "Frosty Milkshakes: They're Delicious!" I agree. The opposite wall seizes on an entirely different sense of "vintage," and features art deco posters littered with Italian phrases and stylized depictions of coffee cups and industrial machinery. This result is not a harmonious blend of varied elements, but a chaotic jumble of contradictory concepts.
The carelessness with which VC is decorated perplexes but does not surprise: its owners are responsible for the similarly confused aesthetic of the adjacent Stonegrill and the utterly atrocious decor of Nishiki. The little things count, and VC seems to me to suffer from a certain inattention to detail. It is patently not a bad place, but neither is it a good one.
The idea of naming a place "Vintage Cafe" in a brand-new building seems kind of odd, but there's something about the place that seems a lot older. It's not somethign I can put my finger on, but Vintage Cafe seems to have tapped into a Sacramento coffee shop vibe that has been around for decades: one that was commonplace here in Sacramento back when "Starbuck" was the character Dirk Benedict played on TV. It feels a bit like the original version of Java City, or No Jive, or Terra Roxa. Maybe that's why the name works, and why the first time I walked through the door I felt like I had been hanging out there for years. The main modern touch is free Wi-Fi, a nice thing.
The decor is just sort of eclectic and random, but it works. The help are friendly, cute downtown indie girls who smoke cigarettes. The coffee is inexpensive (99 cents for a 12 ounce cup ain't bad in this day and age) and my cup of Italian roast was very, very good: just the right bite but with a surprisingly smooth and non-bitter finish for a dark roast. I didn't recognize the band playing on the radio when I came in because I'm old and hopelessly lame, but I liked the band immediately. They sell sandwiches and sushi and pastries at reasonable prices.
My only complaint is that they close early: this is really the sort of place that should be open late at night, with crowds of semi-employed urbaneenies smoking cloves, arguing philosophy and talking mad smack about any of their social circle who doesn't happen to be sitting there at the table. Hopefully someday they will be.
my best friend is the "cute downtown indie girls who smoke cigarettes" and the "clove aroma" comes from her!
i go there during the day to keep her company, play cards, scrabble, they have some good games. and they make a pretty good chai latte. pastries are yummy, so is the sushi!
check it out sometime!
