Black Hand Coffee Co.

The atmosphere in Black Hand is perfect for sipping coffee, people watching, writing, sketching or whatever you do when you’re relaxing in a coffee shop. The decor is natural wood, exposed brick, and plenty of sunshine streaming in through the large windows. Steam was billowing up from the espresso machine, backlit by the morning sunlight when I walked in. There was a quiet cacophony of coffee house chatter and eclectic music in the air. The barista that greeted me was neither friendly nor unfriendly. It was a very neutral, almost android-like greeting. They were seated behind the counter and seemed just slightly bothered that they had to stand up to take my order. A second barista slipped in behind the counter, and in contrast, his demeanor was very upbeat and pleasant. His high energy and cheerful attitude had a positive affect on the other barista. Together they made a good coffee team. I ordered a drip coffee (medium roast) and a bagel with cream cheese. However, they were out of cream cheese, so I passed on the bagel. I just have to have cream cheese on my bagel. They were also out of bacon and sausage. Maybe this is routine for them to be out of food during morning hours, but as this was my first visit here, I really have no idea. Hopefully not. If I owned a coffee shop where the main food item on the menu was bagels, I would make sure that I had plenty of cream cheese on hand. And if I didn’t, I’d make sure to run to a local grocery to get enough to hold me over until my food delivery arrived. During my short visit to the shop there were at least two dozen customers who asked for bagels with cream cheese. Despite the lack of cream cheese, my overall experience here was positive. I would recommend this place for your next morning cup of coffee. I will definitely return. Hopefully they will have cream cheese when I do.

(review from a month ago) an impromptu trip to richmond led me to this coffee shop i had been dying to go to! i wish we could've been able to go in and check out the place, but due to covid restrictions, we couldn't. thankfully it was a really nice day, and we sat outside in this cute little nook next to the shop. i had a dirty chai with oat milk, and my boyfriend had a vanilla iced latte. a 10/10, and the girl who worked there was lovely as well! i will be definitely be coming back!

A friend showed us this place. It is very homey with only a few people working. Worth the wait. The menu is small, which makes it easy to choose between options. They have a frequent sipper card for regular customers and a nice area to sit outside. Another cool thing is there is a book exchange in front of the coffee shop 🙂

I got the 16oz Flavor Latte (with Gingerbread) and soy milk. My drink was made super fast! The place is small, seating is a bit limited for groups larger than two people. Just about everyone in here is doing work on laptops so it’s fairly quiet. The barista was a little straight forward and didn’t care much to sprinkle in some extra friendliness but it didn’t ruin my experience at all. I wish they used in-house mugs or “for here” mugs. It would reduce some waste! EDIT: they do have in house mugs, but they are only for smaller lattes and drinks :). 👍🏼 Overall the coffee was very good and I am very happy! I would recommend this place for people looking to study or wind down and relax with a coffee. Off topic: lots of windows for natural light, yet the room was still very dark for whatever reason. Some people might want a brighter atmosphere to work in so I thought I might mention the setting.