813 SW Lemans Ln
Lees Summit, MO
My Experience
My Dad was in town recently and we wanted to get a quick coffee and visit for a while. I wasn’t to familiar with the area so I whipped out the iPhone and typed coffee in the GPS. It gave me the address of a coffee shop right around the corner off of the 150 Highway in Lees Summit, Missouri. We got directions and proceeded to our destination.
As I walked in the door I saw tables with magazines and newspapers strewn across them as if people had been there just moments before. The barista smiled and welcomed us in. As I looked over the menu I noticed they sold a variety of different items from coffee to ice cream. (It seems to be a growing theme I have been noticing with coffee shops to carry things like ice cream, sandwiches and shaved ice. I don’t know if this fact is hurting or helping their over all business. On one end they are advertising themselves as a coffee shop on the outside of their building in huge letters. But then when you walk it seems as if coffee is more of an accent too or more of an after thought rather than the main event. 
Maybe having cafe or ice cream in the title would help give people clarity on what they can expect to find once inside and maybe draw in the customers that do desire things such as ice cream or a smoothie.) I stood there debating on an espresso drink or regular coffee. As I debated with myself I asked the barista, “How many shots come in your 12 ounce latte’? “One,” she replied, “But you could get two. It’s really easy to get two out of it.” I then dug deeper, “So do you add more coffee when you pull two shots or just let water run through it longer?” “I just let the water run longer,” she replied. We both settled on regular coffee from Kenya. 
We walked outside and found a table in the shade of an umbrella. As we sipped our coffee my Dad looked at me and said, “This tastes like milk, I can barely taste the coffee.” I agreed that it was watered down and really not portioned correctly at all. My Dad and I had an amazing afternoon and enjoyed our visit together but the coffee part was a total bust.
My Rating – 2.5 Stars out of 5 Stars
The Breakdown
Environment – 3 Stars
Customer Service – 3 Stars
Products – 3 Stars
Skill – 1 Stars
Wifi – 3 Stars
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{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
Wow, as soon as I heard “I just let the water run longer,” I would have walked out. That’s just horrible. It seems like quality cafes and skilled baristas are getting more rare these days.
@Jason from SingleServeCoffeeDeals.com – I did cringe upon hearing her say that but wanted to visit with my Dad for as long as possible.
It does appear lately that the truly great coffee shops are few and far between.
I have a lot of coffee shops like that here in the Tampa area. Most of them are so-so, but I’ve just been told about a few that are worthy of praise. Makes me missing living in Chicago, I didn’t know how fortunate I was until I left there.
Jason Coffee, I truly hope you will try us again and I am sorry you were disappointed in your visit to our coffee shop. The barista may have been confused by what you asked her. Maybe she was describing how to make an Americano, which we do add water to the espresso shots. An Americano is basically just a very strong coffee after the water is added.
To answer your question that the barista was unable to answer for you: For our cappuccinos and latte’s we don’t use a coffee bean, we use espresso beans to brew the shots. When we make our espresso shots, it is always made two shots at a time so we can always add that second shot if the customer would like it added. For 12 oz. drinks we use one espresso shot, for a 16 oz. drinks we use 2 espresso shots and for the 20 oz. drinks we use 3 espresso shots. We don’t “let the water run longer”. That’s not even possible. The espresso machine handles the brewing not the barista. So she informed you incorrectly of how this is done and I apologize for that. I’m sorry, but you also mentioned you both decided on coffee and it tasted like milk. We don’t add milk or cream to our coffee the customer does if they choose to add it. Next we do not offer ice cream any longer and we haven’t since the summer of 2008 and we don’t advertise that we do anywhere in the shop. Maybe you were referring to the fruit smoothes? We only offer: coffee, latte’s, cappuccinos, ice teas, chai tea, iced coffee, hot chocolate, blended coffee drinks, fruit smoothies as well as other smoothies (which is necessary for kids), milk, water, canned soda, pies, cakes, muffins, bagels, scones, locally baked fresh cookies. We also offer a couple of sandwiches, chips, a soup of the day during the winter, two different salads and a wrap. We aren’t advertising ourselves as an ice cream parlor so I’m sorry you got that impression.
Please know we are a family run business, with family and friends actually working behind the counter, so we must have items that kids will enjoy when they come in with their parents. We hope to always be able to draw families in to our coffee shop. Customers will always notice we have several board games, playing cards, magazines, newspapers and free Wi-Fi. We also have local kids from the Lee’s Summit and surrounding area’s come in to play jazz, alternative, or whatever music they love every so often at our jam sessions. So please come and check that out. I guarantee it’s always a crowd pleaser and a family friendly environment. Please come see us again.
Thanks,
Doozens Coffee
@Doozen’s Coffee – Thanks so much for stopping by and caring enough to leave a comment. I totally understand some of the points you were making. It sounds like you have a really cool hang out for families and that things are really buzzing for you with the jazz & jam sessions, that’s great! I would love to get coffee with you sometime, stop by the shop and give it another try. Shoot me an email – jason@coffeecupnews.org
Thanks again!
I live in that area and cannot attest on the taste of Doozens Coffee but I have heard from friends that they like the place. I guess it just depends on who is making the coffee really. But there was a great small coffee shop near QuickTrip off of N 50 Highway next to a photography studio that was called Java Cafe that had a great local feel with good coffee. Another good place I have been to was Honkerbean’s Coffee & Gelato off of Douglas near Lee’s Summit North High School and I think it is family owned with great gelato and vanilla lattes, in my opinion. Again it has been a while since I actually been to that place so don’t take my word. If you have time in the Lee’s Summit area visit Honkerbean’s (right behind a Starbucks…ha) because it is really close to 150.
My 2 cents.
Blake
I am pretty sure Honkerbean’s went out of business right? Thanks for the heads up on the Java Cafe, I will have to check that out. What part LS are you from?
Unfortunately, Java Cafe closed down quite some time ago.
I loved their coffee. It’s now a baby/child clothing consignment store.
bummer.
Do you have a new fav?