Peet's Coffee

Well-located cafe for both pre-work energy supply and post-work relaxing.
Their coffee products are hot and strong, but not bitter, the brewed coffee of the day outclasses the Starbucks equivalent.
Also the pastries are tasty and way over standard. All that is served by friendly staff, who also upgrade your beverage without hesitating in case of lacking of cups or a certain ingredient.
There's also free wifi, ask for the key when you're ordering.

Aug 2018:
I am updating this review in lieu of changes brought on by the Chicago Corporate Office.
While the product that Peet's provides is still superior, their treatment of employees is questionable. They've had 100% turnover in staff in a short amount of time directly due to their mishandling of a manager's preannouncing retirement followed by subsequent bungling of replacements.
What WAS a coffee shop that had employees greeting you by name (I stopped in only 1x per week), offering pleasant suggestions and overall making you feel at home has now become just another Starbucks-style knockoff but worse. The employees constantly cycle, most don't even manage either the register or even the barista position in a way that acknowledges a wait due to errors, etc.
I won't continue to come here. A local coffee shop now sells matcha lattes made true to form and actually are green with matcha, not mostly white with a chinsy measure of it like Peet's.

2017 review:
I've always loved their coffee and prep. But when I gave up coffee to switch to tea, particularly falling in love with matcha tea, I realized how great their product is.

They sell true Japanese matcha powder in tins for prep at home. Their matcha latte is unsweetened and when ordered without syrup you taste an always consistent latte with the nice nutty flavor of matcha prepared correctly. It's lovely!

Dweeb Alert!

Stopped in for a simple cup of coffee. No line at the register but Manager who takes himself way too seriously and was probably a tormented crossing guard in school insisted that I start at the posted floor labels and follow the path around the velvet rope to the register. Give me an f’ing break! 😡

The best cappuccino of any coffee shop. Creamy almond milk.

Like their coffee but the lines are always long at this location, indicating to me either that the baristas are not trained for a rush or that they are doing something magical that makes their coffee take so long. Still, their seasonal flavors have Starbucks beat by a mile.

A step above Starbucks, this is a good place for coffee in Evanston. I see lots of people buried in laptops, but the staff is friendly. It's not as lively as the place across the street, but the two complement each other nicely.

If you are from Australia and are spoiled back home with good coffee and are looking for acomparable cup, then this is about as close to a good cup that i can find around evanston. They actually froth the milk and the beans are ok. Service was very good and the setting is cozy for those cold winter's days.

Good coffee/tea, but barristas can be really rude. they gave me the wrong drink one time and laughed off when I said the other lady who was behind me in line took it. they're also not organized when there are a lot of people in line.

Is a great place and has outdkkr seating. Onky reason why its 4 star and nkt 5 is that how do you run out of plain cream cheese. Morning coffee and a bagel is my go to but other that my other visits have been good

As a college student, Peet allows me to focus and get my essays written. The atmosphere makes even the worst of writing assignments a little more bearable and the item prices aren’t crazy. I can usually spend 5 dollars on a coffee cake and coffee drink and then work here for 5-8 hours.