Johnny's Java in Santa Rosa, CA: A Review

Santa Rosa seems to be a tough place for independent coffee shops. Sure, everyone drinks coffee ... they drink Folgers or whatever they get cheapest from CostCo at the moment, and when they're out and about, they stand in the Starbucks line. There's not exactly a "coffee culture" here - people usually just want Caffeine, Sugar, Burnt and Cheap, in that order.

So it's surprising to see a place like Johnny's Java at all here. Much less doing well. Much less doing well in an oddball location off Piner where you wouldn't even expect a Starbucks. But whenever I drop by in the morning, the place is never slammed, but they seem to do steady business throughout the day, 7 days a week.

The interior is more like the type of coffee house you'd see in San Francisco. A number of tables, racks of free papers such as the Bohemian and Upbeat Times, and a community message board. In the back, a couch and some comfy chairs, and even a pool table. The coffee is self-serve, but there's usually a choice of about eight types, and the staple French and Italian roasts seem to always be present and are a touch better in quality than Starbucks, at prices that are roughly comparable.

They also have a range of sweet treats such as muffins, cookies, lemon bars and coffee cakes. These appear to be baked by someone locally and are decent, but very rich. I think they need to scale back on the butter a bit. But not bad in a pinch. One thing that I really like about the place, and that I wish more coffee places would do, is that they also serve ice cream. I know it might seem like an odd pairing, but ice cream and good coffee actually are amazing together. Anyway, this is the first place I've stumbled across in years that does that, since Emack & Bolio's back in Boston.

It's a cool little place to hang out - a steady stream of people come in, but the majority seem to take their coffee to go, so the interior is never very crowded. I dunno about the "light jazz" station they usually play, but everything else is spot on - comfy, spacious, just a touch funky, and fast free WiFi for the asking. I guess it's largely due to a severe lack of competition in the area, but in any case, I'm really glad this place is here.