1881Coffee Cafe

Quaint and really quiet inside — iced coffee was great! Just a quick stop on our way through.

A few days ago we came out of the Sonora Pass looking for a break from the road. A gem of a little coffee shop appeared on the left in the middle of nowhere. The server, Elene, was a charming 17 yr old, who was a great conversationalist. Bubbly! Coffee was delicious also. Clean restrooms. A welcome respite.

Really good Carmel Lattes! This is also an amazing historical building that is always nice to look around while your waiting for your coffee. Beautiful front sitting area right on the 395 where you can gaze at the beautiful mountains and passer by’s.

We love the small town feel of this little coffee place. Drinks were great and good selection. They have a small pastry display, nothing fancy. The best part is the campgrounds near Twin Lakes have no cell reception or WiFi. But we can get both here! There is a playground out back for kids to run after a long day in the car too. We will probably be back several times this week to get some work done while on vacation here.

Not great coffee but not bad either. Service was good and quick. Tried the Swiss chocolate smoothie and a hot mocha. Neither one were done well. I don’t think it was the server but the drink mix or recipe used. Really cool building and the place has a lot of potential. Hope they can revise and I can try it again next time I pass though town.

Great place! Small yet well-​maintained place. Lovely people. Great house. I am glad that this place was next door to where I stayed at Bridgeport.

Great historic house coffee shop! Wi-​fi and a desk top computer! Staff if friendly and they have lattes, teas… & pastries! High ceilings, chandeliers; with «influential» family history, pics & furniture! Prices are reasonable!

Had a nice coffee here and sat for a while on the grass after a trip up in the Virginia Lakes area. Good place to take a pit stop. Be patient, this is a small town and they are not Starbucks, and that is a GOOD THING. Nice people too.

We stopped at this cute little coffee shop on the way from Mono Lake back to the bay area. We walked in right around closing time. And the barista was kind enough to let us in and make our coffees on a cold, rainy evening. (We never got back home to the Bay Area since they closed all the passes due to snow and we needed coffee!!)
The coffee shop is inside an old house. There’s a gift shop along side the coffee shop for you to shop while you wait for your coffee. Walk further inside and you reach a large living room type area where you could read books, chat with your friends and enjoy your coffee. I did notice garlic pods hanging in one of the rooms. Haunted? or Décor? ;-)
Nowonto the coffee. I am not sure what beans the coffee shop uses but it was damn good. We ordered café au laits and cappucinos. The blend was perfect for a milk infused coffee.
Would I recommend? Highly. Especially when there is a friendly barista :)

I’m so thankful for this place. I come to Bridgeport three to four times a year to and from backpacking trips. Often times, it’s so hard to find a good coffee place in smaller towns. This place is fantastic, though! I’ve been here about five times over the last couple of years, and the coffee was excellent at each visit. Really good, strong dark roast, similar to what you would expect at a Peets or Philz in the Bay Area.
The service is also wonderful. On more than one occasion, the kind girls behind the counter have asked us if we would like to wait about five extra minutes for a fresh pot of coffee to be made. This kind and personal service combined with the yummy coffee keep us coming back summer after summer.

Nice flavor on the coffee, very dark roast flavor.
Cool old house location too.

Waited behind 5 people for 45 minutes, for an iced coffee drink. By contrast, the next day, went to Nugets Bakery down the street, who whipped out a superb iced mocha (coffee was lovely and strong) in 2 minutes. Full of people, no wait. And a $ less than 1881. Do not recommend 1881 unless they get some blenders in the front, and train the staff to be competent.
2 stars for the coffee cake that was excellent. But if you hope to order and pay in a reasonable period, you will be disappointed.

Great place to stop for coffee when in Bridgeport! Free wifi and friendly service add to the experience. Be sure to try their signature walnut apple loaf!

1881 Coffee Café of Bridgeport, CA 93 517 is a great place to go for a coffee experience.
This café is located in a really old house (they keep the music on so you can’t hear the ghosts… I’m not kidding), so the layout is unlike the majority of coffee shops. As you enter, you’ll notice a few high tables with bar stools situated in a small room with the coffee bar and gift shop. After you order and receive your beverage (or snack), walk passed the coffee bar into a large living room where you can sit back and relax. They have a computer and free wifi (in case you need to find a map to a few gold mines in the area), and the staff is very nice! There’s also a small patio outside (and plenty of parking). This is by far the best place to get a cup of coffee in Bridgeport!
Note: No health hazards/​violations were noted at this location.

I would have to agree with the reviewer of 1881 Coffee Café from 7÷10÷2012. When we visited the Café, we were, thankfully, first in line. The «smoothies» that we ordered took well over 15 minutes to receive and they were insipid. More ice than any other ingredient, they remained tasteless as they melted. Offered the option of having the berry smoothies made with apple juice or water, we chose apple. We couldn’t taste either the berry or apple in the over five dollar apiece drinks. The customers lined up behind us, bemoaned their wait, some leaving without service.
The topper was that the one, beleaguered young counter girl, who was friendly, seemed to need help and during her «disappearance» to the location of the blender somewhere in the back of the facility, a man came forward from somewhere in the back of the shop, looked at the ten or so people standing in line, opened the cash drawer, dropped in some money, shut the drawer, turned on his heels, lifting not a finger to help allay the roadblock with which he was somehow intimately involved.
Bad drinks. .. bad service.

I was here on a «busy» day, meaning the seating /​dining room was ¾ full — about 4 tables had people, and there were 6 of us in line. For iced drinks. For 30 minutes. I kid you not.
The cashier and coffee maker behind the counter were disorganized, and seemed to only be able to take payment and make one drink about every 5 minutes. Exacerbating this on a warm day was the fact that the blender for blended iced drinks was through another dining room and in the far back room. After 20 minutes where they kept apologizing to us for how slow everything was, as we stood there not moving in the heat, I asked why they didn’t consider getting online to spend $ 80 for another blender like the ones at Starbucks and Peets. They replied that, «Oh no. we would have to spend hundreds.» but I’ve seen the plastic ones at restaurant supply places for $ 80. so I recommend they bite the bullet and surf the internet.
My blended mocha drink, for $ 5, was going to just be some powder with ice.seriously. But i asked for decaf and non-​fat milk, so they made it fresh with espresso and NFmilk. but when they brought it out from the back, it was white and very watery icy without a lot of flavor. I could faintly make out the coffee but there was no chocolate to speak of… but i could tell the coffee was good and could have made a great drink as it had good yet distant flavor, for all the water and ice added to it.
The place is cute (if no ventilation and therefore humid on a hot day, while outside it’s breezy. how about opening a couple of windows ???). Old brick building with tiny rooms and tall windows. they have a professional espresso machine and I imagine the coffee (hot) is good from it.
Overall. they need to get professional and real about their business. train the help and get them moving. If they did that, the place could be terrific. I wanted to order food but after the 30m wait for coffee I was a little afraid to order anything else for fear it could take hours.

Yum! What a find. I’m so glad I found this place. I love coffee… I need my coffee in the morning! If I’m on the road, I always try to find a place to have some. I’m not a snob about how it tastes, but I will say that this was good. :)
It’s a bright, clean, friendly place that has a computer with internet access for customers. This is something you really appreciate when you’re traveling through Bridgeport, where cell access is spotty if you’re not in the dead-​center of town! I visited twice on my trip and everyone I met there was friendly and helpful.
I also sampled the walnut cake, which was fantastic! If you do a Google search you can find the recipe. Now that I’m home I plan to make some for my coworkers. :) This was a great place to stop and have a snack before going on a hike or sightseeing around town.

OMG the walnut cake & coffee here is worth stopping for. The Lee Vining Mobil station seems to have really raised the bar to inspire kitchens up and down the East Side to do the right thing. Lets hope for more of the good thing from This little spot.

One would not expect to find a restaurant like 1881 in such a remote, tiny town like Bridgeport. This is a beautiful, antique-​filled restaurant in a vintage Victorian house on the main street of town. The menu is extensive, with a variety of appetizers, salads, and entrees that include fresh trout, steaks, chops, pastas, and more. Definitely save room for dessert — they are all house-​made and are extraordinary. My mom’s favorite was the Hummingbird Cake — oh, so yummy!
AAA 4-​diamond rated.
Let yourself relax and enjoy the easy-​paced charm of this lovely treasure. For weekend dining, definitely call and make reservations in advance. There are few restaurant options in Bridgeport, and if you’re there at dinner time, this is your best bet, unless you want to go totally casual with a burger or something.
If this same restaurant was located in the Bay Area, I’d give it 4 stars, because even though everything is good, I felt that the prices were on the high side. However, given its remote location, the freshness of the ingredients, and the beautiful setting, I’d say it is definitely worth considering for a special dinner in the High Sierras!