I recently visited their new Live Oak East location, off of Eastlawn. As the former Grove Tea…read moreLounge, Live Oak has made this location into a very hospitable place! The staff is great the coffee, even better! Nice, comfortable sitting areas and a great playground for kids outside! I especially liked the muffins!

The best thing I can say about this place is that the building is absolutely beautiful. It's large,…read morethere's tons of seating, I'm also assuming there are outlets to go with that seating so you could work in there if you wanted. It's connected to other businesses. Although they care far more about their drive-through than those other businesses because definitely one of them has an external door that you would have to cross the drive-through to get to, which is just rude. But that's honestly where all the stars end. The coffee is mediocre. The menu is mediocre. You can get whatever you get everywhere else here and it will taste fine. There's zero originality in their menu. Where it truly goes downhill is their employees. How are you going to be two blocks from downtown Midland and not have any awareness of the area and be able to direct an out-of-towner to a nice place to walk? Perhaps I have high hopes for the intellectual capabilities of barista's in a medium sized town's coffee shop, but these employees are sure to disappoint you if you want to do anything other than order coffee and get your order. Whatever you do, don't expect any level of conversation. They absolutely cannot deliver. On top of that, their motto appears to be "love people," but that only extends so far as I guess their customers. They love people except for when they employ those people. When they employ those people, they love to micromanage them and force them to have an outdated dress code of black shirts. What are they some sort of indentured servant? Go somewhere else. All you can find in this coffee shop is boring.

Nice environment with friendly staff. Drinks were good and reasonably priced. Would visit again if…read morein the area.

I ordered a mocha and I have no idea what I got. It has caramel and not chocolate at all.read more

I absolutely love the coffee ambiance everything about this place is super amazing especially the…read morestaff! Shout out to Josiah!

Stopped in for a breakfast sandwich and a coffee. Was getting tires on my car, so I had a half hour…read moreto spare. The sandwich was ok, and the coffee was smooth and hot. I drink black coffee, and I am kind of picky. Enjoyed the coffee and the small warm seating area. would recommend.

This was my second visit to Espresso Milano in a few weeks. I highly recommend again. I had the…read more6 shooter last time and the cafe latte this time. It was piping hot and foam was full and hot. The ambience was great old place vibes. The groups gathered were of all ages and everyone seemed comfortable with plenty of easily movable tables. Something to note. Lots of parking in the back of street parking is full. I will go back.

This coffee shop might have a decent menu. I certainly saw menu items listed. But it's really hard…read moreto tell if they have anything interesting or any type of specialties because they have the dumbest baristas I may have ever met. I'm gonna say the baristas are worse than a Biggby's barista. I went into this coffee shop after a 3 mile walk on the rail trail and I asked for something refreshing that wasn't very sugary. When I tell you this motherfucker gave me a fucking iced fucking latte... What the actual fuck!? Coffee is not only not refreshing, it's a diuretic. I would expect someone who is old enough to be working outside of school hours to know that. There's literally a ton of other stuff on their menu that isn't fucking coffee. But this guy wanted to give me an iced latte. It tasted like dirt. Iced lattes are for basic bitches who think that pumpkin spiced anything is the height of flavor. I was chatting up the stoner looking employees (?) sitting in the middle of the café with nothing to do, and every word that fell out of their mouths was dumber than the last. If "Espresso Milano" is meant to harken back to some fancy place in Italy, the reality is quite the opposite. However, their merchandise does have cats on it, and that's really cool. You might be able to find something good on this menu, just don't ask the barista to help you find it. They are not equal to the task.

The coffee food and smoothies are good and everybody there is very nice and friendly. -my cousinread more

Best little coffee shop! The owner is super friendly and talks to you to figure out what kind of…read morethings you like in your coffee and then makes the perfect cup. She has all kinds of flavoring for coffees. And features speciality breads and muffins to go along with the seasons. The warped chia is my absolute favorite drink there. She has alternative milks for those with other preferences or on special diets as well. Stop in and check it out!!

I stopped here for a quick drink. I kept seeing variation of cinnamon plum so I ordered that. The…read moredrink was OK. It's like flavored milk. The staff was quick. There's free parking outside. There's also an outdoor area with tables and chairs. This is a great place for those who want to study or have a small get together. There was actually a small group of what looks like a book club while I was waiting for my drink. There's also a corner of various books and toys for young children. Overall, it was OK . Next time, I'll try something else. Their tea flight looked interesting but I was short on time.

The tea has been bitter lately and there's no Boba anymore…read more Kinda disappointed Service is good

Quiet, relaxing atmosphere. Ordered vanilla latte with almond milk & "dirty" Chai latte (latte with…read moreespresso) with almond milk. Coffee to go served hot with a nice milk foam. Seating options are casual. Nice place to visit, will return.

This place is cute and super clean and modern. It feels minimalist when you walk inside. They…read morehave wifi available and it's nice and bright in here if you are staying to work. They only had two baristas when we came in Sunday morning. We were two groups and the food and drinks took a long time. But I think they really needed a third person behind the bar. The Vanilla Oatmilk latte I ordered was super sweet, I'd say if you like sweet, this is for you. If not go with a regular latte. But maybe the Oatmilk was sweet too? It was a bit too sweet for me. The muffin was tasty. And the avocado toast was okay. It was super uniform and flat. The bread was okay. Nothing special here. The service was also flat. I didn't find the same warmth I did as when I went to their competitors in the area. But maybe they were too busy for warmth. I found It cold. Maybe it's new, maybe they are still figuring It out, maybe they were short handed this morning. I wasn't in a rush but other people in my party definitely were disappointed with the wait time. Patience is a virtue. Not sure I'll return with other amazing options. But I hope you do well, it's great to see so many choices in Midland for small coffee shops. Come with patience. The food isn't bad, It just wasn't great.

Absolutely my favorite coffee shop! Incredible selection of lattes, Frappuccinos, mocktails and…read morecold coffees.

Get ready to wait. Very slow. I don't know why it takes so long especially when I order a bagel and…read moreit's barely toasted. Every time too lol. I have never been in line less than 10 minutes. And I can be the only one in line.

Always a good place to get some work done and has tasty food as well as delicious caffeinated…read morebeverages. Be sure to try their seasonal specials!

I work at CMU once a year and often have time before my shift to grab breakfast. I'm familiar with…read morePonder Coffee from their location in the Health Professions building where I work, but I wanted to check out this downtown location. I loved it! The location is great and I was able to find street parking nearby pretty easily (although it was during CMU's winter break). I got a breakfast burrito with sausage, bacon, cheddar, and potato, and an oat milk latte. The employee taking my order was patient and friendly. The space isn't huge but I was able to get a small high top table near the front window to read and enjoy my breakfast. The latte was very delicious and creamy, and the breakfast burrito was huge! I loved that it came with salsa and sour cream. I definitely could have saved half for later, but it was so good that I smashed the whole thing. The seating wasn't super comfortable, but I was able to hang out for about an hour or so, reading and having a nice warm meal. Loved my visit to this Ponder Coffee and will definitely go back in the future.

Have traveled up north Michigan many times and always seen the billboard advertising Cops &…read moreDoughnuts in Clare. Made it a point to make this a stop on our travel route to Traverse City. So glad we did! It's in a small quaint downtown Clare. Street parking. Many different goodies to choose from, including donuts, cookies, mini cakes, and much more. They offer day "old" items as self serve in a separate area, so be sure to check it out for a great deal. They also have a storefront with jelly, salsa, cherries, honey and more. Also, tshirts and some other logo apparel and souvenirs. Staff is very friendly and helpful. They were very patient when we told them it was our first time and spent time looking at all the options. Very reasonable prices. Probably the freshest baked goods I have ever had. The apple fritter is hands down the best! Pieces of cut apples baked into the donut. Delicious! The blueberry donut has fresh and moist literally melted in my mouth. The chocolate cookie with chocolate frosting is a real treat, very sweet and can be shared. The list goes on and on... every single thing we had was delicious - you can't go wrong with anything! It was so good we made a stop in route going home. This is a definite must try! You may even find yourself making a special trip just to get more of their delicious goodies. Stop in - you won't be disappointed!

I had been hearing about Cops & Doughnuts for years now. Our usual route up to Traverse City…read moredoesn't typically go through Clare but this year we did find ourselves going through on a detour and I thought that would a good time to try the place. I have to say, after the years of hype, I was disappointed. First off, the storefront isn't anything fancy. And it doesn't have to be! Most of my favorite donut shops are no frills with florescent lighting and the same cabinets and pans they've used for decades. But it's a weird vibe because it's also kind of touristy? Like they know they get a lot of tourists so they sell merch and stuff, and the two just don't really mesh? IDK. We got a dozen donuts to munch on during the drive and take with us up north and they were just ok. A little too dense for my liking (I like a melt in your mouth, pillowy yeasted donut) and very, very sweet. One of the donuts we got was the maple bacon "squealer" and the bacon was limp and chewy. I also got an apple turnover and had an odd aftertaste and left a bit of a film on my tongue. IDK, it all just didn't' seem fresh? Like the options had been sitting on the shelf for more than 24 hours. Maybe we got them on a bad day? IDK. The staff was really nice though, and I know they do a lot for the community so I don't begrudge them of any success, and they do seem to have a playful sense of humor which is fun for the brand but I just wasn't wowed. I can't see myself going out of my way to get here again. If we're detoured, maybe, but I think we'd be better off coming earlier in the day for the freshest offerings possible.