In Search of Great Coffee and Free Wi-Fi in the San Francisco East Bay

I like to take my laptop out of the house, find a place to buy a coffee and then sit and work. Most libraries offer free Wi-Fi but have a no food rule. I am searching for free Wi-Fi with great coffee. In my local search I tried Bodi’s Java Specialty Coffee House in Castro Valley, Cherubini Coffee House in Alamo and Panama Red Coffee Company in Livermore.

Each coffee shop was visited on more than one occasion before I formed my opinions.

Located on East Castro Valley Blvd, and close to the 580 Freeway, Bodi’s was easy to find with plenty of shared parking with the shops around. It doesn’t look very big from the outside, but it goes back a long way. Seating about 40 people, there are sofas at the back and toys for little children too. In addition, there are a couple of tables outside at the front.

The food is the same food that is sold in Costco, they make sandwiches and salads too. There’s a really nice variety of food offered including smoothies.

My small vanilla latte was $2.85. The coffee was awesome. Nothing like the coffee you buy in chain stores, this is the real thing and the best coffee I’ve tasted in a long time.

I have to mention the chairs. Being someone who is a little well endowed in my rear end, I only just fit between the arms on the chairs. For anyone larger than me the only option is the sofa in the back, as all the chairs are the same size.

The Wi-Fi took me a while to get connected, but the second time I visited the store it remembered me and I was connected automatically. I did have to check a box that I agreed to the terms and conditions. When once I had done that, there were annoying ads on that bottom of my Internet pages. I was a little concerned that I had downloaded something by agreeing to the terms and conditions, but the ads were just for the duration of when I was in the coffee shop and disappeared when I went home.

The décor is attractive with pictures on the wall and a fish tank in the back next to the sofas. About half the people were chatting and half had laptops.

You don’t always get a good impression of somewhere when it’s raining and my first visit to Cherubini’s was in heavy rain. Nevertheless, I loved the place. It has atmosphere and character and I was looking forward to a second visit when the weather would be good enough for people to sit outside. There are seats both in front of and behind Cherubini’s. It is located at the end of a group of shops and offices and I thought I parked in the last remaining parking spot. But when I was inside Cherubini’s I realized that there is more parking behind the coffee shop.

The front of Cherubini’s says that it’s an antique store and you get the feeling that you are indeed walking into an antique store with all the interesting things hanging on the wall.

Many of the tables are for large groups. The whole store is divided into a number of small rooms, with dividers and when it was nearly full, the noise level wasn’t loud at all. Most people were chatting, I was the only one with a computer. I connected to the Internet without any problem.

The coffee was served in a ceramic cup with a saucer. A small vanilla latte was $3.99 and worth every penny. There was a selection of home baked cakes. I had the carrot cake and it was heavenly. It tasted very light and fresh. By the time I’d been there for three hours, drunk two cups of coffee and eaten carrot cake, I felt like I was family. The tables were cleared regularly and I felt very much looked after.

Inside seats about 50 people and there is room for another 10 in front of the store, 20 outside on the covered deck at the back and yet another 30 by tables by the creek. For me, however, the only sockets are inside the store so even if the weather was good I would have to be inside.

The worst thing to say about Cherubini’s is that it closes at 4pm. One evening the weather was lovely and I would have liked to sit outside Cherubini’s with a loved one, but it was closed. I’ve not yet been on a Sunday afternoon, but I imagine it is busy as it is the perfect location for a Sunday afternoon coffee.

Located in the heart of the newly renovated downtown Livermore, on the corner of 1^st and K, Panama Red Coffee House is in an attractive location with seating outside. I went on a Tuesday morning and it was busy, but by the time I purchased my coffee I realized that there is a lot more seating in the back of the shop and that area was quiet enough to work. I opened my laptop and settled to work only to discover the table was very unstable and rocked badly. So bad in fact that I had to move. Scattered through the shop there are 6 comfy chairs, 3 pairs of two in fact and I moved to one of these and was happy for the rest of my work time.

The second time I went I sat in a different seat, but the socket on the wall didn’t work. My laptop was low on battery, so I had to move for power.

The cost of my small vanilla latte was $3.35. It was served in paper cup and the server put a leaf pattern on the top. The snacks offered were a mixture of pastries, nothing appealed to me enough to want to buy. There is room for 30 to sit inside and another 30 to sit outside.

I don’t know if Panama Coffee in Livermore is new or not, but there is an interesting tiled structure in the back of the store that is not finished. It has coffee cups half fixed in the wall. When it is finished it will include more seats in a cozy corner.

On the wall are pictures and photographs that are framed and for sale. I loved them and was trying to imagine which one I would prefer to buy and where in my home I could hang it.

When I arrived at 10am the store was very noisy. There was a lot of talking and nothing to absorb it. But by the time I left at noon it was quiet. It seems to be the hub of a friendly community, more the place to chat than a place to work.

For these three locations, Cherubini’s wins for atmosphere but Bodi’s wins for the coffee taste. However, Cherubini’s comes a close second for serving coffee in a ceramic cup, a rarity that is hard to find.