Spiral Press Cafe

Their iced coffee is the best in Manchester and the ice cream next door a Scoops is amazing. I love coming here in the morning for coffee and then sitting outside in the sun with a good book — can’t beat it!

The coffee is the best in Manchester and the lunch/​breakfast food is good. The upstairs room for eating gets like a packed ski lodge on big weekends. But you will really need to relax after the chaotic, claustrophobic line for ordering! Fortunately you can do so looking at the books. The bookstore is fabulous.

I really like relaxing here. The café is just a nice place to sit, people watch, or meet friends. The food is pretty good and so is the coffee. Sometimes they can seem in a rush to turn tables, which is understandable from a business standpoint but it is a café connected to a bookstore that offers wifi. Something about that combination invites people to spend a little more time than the quick eat your sandwich and make room for someone else vibe that can be sent out at certain times. Also, I’ve noticed they like to play games with the wifi during these turn and burn times. I avoid the place when it gets to this point but am happy to spend my time there when I feel a little more welcome. I’m not sure how they should go about marrying the two concepts, relax and read versus eat and leave, but I do wish it would be a little more consistent.

We LOVE the Spiral Press and look forward to stopping in every time we visit my in laws in VT. The food at Spiral Press is equally an attraction as the attached bookstore, The Northshire. We really recommend the Goodnight Moon (veggie burger); it never disappoints and I find myself craving it in between visits.

Love!!! Best hot chocolate in the world I recommend them if you want to enjoy yourself!

I used to spend a lot of time here, and will always have a soft spot for Spiral. Unfortunately, the food and changes in atmosphere over the last few years make this somewhere I haven’t returned often.
Good selection of baked goods, but expensive. Most recently, I got an oatmeal fudge bar and it was very dry. My husband’s coffee was burnt.
The biggest problem for me was the staff on my last visit. A group of friends and I ordered sandwiches and had lunch at a table. I was still chewing when a staff member wiped down the table, looked at us pointedly, and said «we have people waiting.» I understand that it can get busy, but we weren’t lingering for hours over a single cup of coffee.

A nice stop for a great coffee bar or tea plus great food while strolling the town. The place made our radar last year when we stopped in for some hot java drinks and saw a big tray of bacon coming out of the kitchen smelling great and destined for sandwiches and other bites (apparently they go through more than just one pile a day and based on the memorable smell I know why). We grabbed a grilled cheese sandwich and a Caesar salad this time. Just fine for lunch. Lots of locals and plenty of seating up over the book store. Now an annual stop on our pre-​Christmas shopping trek through this postcard ready town.

Great coffee and excellent breakfast burritos. A nice, clean place to hang out (or get out of the car on a long trip, like I did), sit and eat, or just use the bathroom. I only stopped in quickly, but one could hang here for awhile and be very happy.

The ice cream sandwich was the best I ever had in my life. It was so good I may have dreams about it. This truly was a food revelation. The chocolate chip cookies were themselves perfection. Sandwiched between the cookies was the epitome of perfection of maple walnut ice cream. I feel I traveled to Vermont to taste delicious ice cream and my wish was fulfilled. Thank you for making my wish come true.

The panini is excellent however they are over priced and it takes forever to get! They have very limited seating, 4 stools inside and 4 outside. The only cool part is that they are attached to a great bookstore!

Walked in 40 minutes before they were supposed to close, and was told I could only order cold food. Then 15 seconds later, was informed I couldn’t order *any* food. Looked like the guys making food just wanted to duck out of work early. Menu looked good, but I never had a chance to try anything. Not going to come back.

Stopped in on our drive from NJ to Stratton. What a great place! The coffee and baked goods were very good. Great place to stop with kids with plenty of seating, order at counter format, and a great bookstore/​toy store attached. If we lived in the area we would be here weekly.

This place is a little piece of heaven in a little place called Manchester. I would beat my balls with a rubber mallet for their catcher in the rye sandwich.

Judging from other reviews, they’ve either improved or we got lucky as it relates to service and wait time. I suspect it was our arrival off peak, 1:30 on a cloudy early Sept pre leaf peeper afternoon. We ordered a couple of salads and some outmeal, all of which were outstanding. The counter staff were friendly and helpful. There’s ample seating up and to the left and they bring your order out to you so that they can avoid the congestion in the small space where you order. Although we’re generally carbophobes, they had a temptingly nice selection of baked goods for those of you just looking for an accompaniment to your coffee drink.

Don’t let the entrance fool you, this place has tons of seating both outside and inside. It is connected to the bookstore, which can also be handy if you need to grab something to peruse while enjoying your coffee. The coffee itself, however, was just ok. The mocha my beau bought was so sweet I wouldn’t have been able to drink it and the drip coffee was drinkable but not as exciting as I was hoping when I heard the name spiral press. The pastries are great though and the folks working there nice. It’d be good if they could unclutter the entrance a little; folks just kept bumping into each other and climbing over one another to read the sandwich board.

First, the place is a nice café right in Manchester Center, looked great from the outside, looked like it was busy, had seats so perfect place to grab something to snack on while my companion had a meeting.
Second… your a café! With FREE WiFi
I order a iced tea, I order a cup of soup! I sit down next to another patron that was using her laptop and break mine out. Log on and I am off and running.
Lets Recap, you have free WiFi, you have some of my money I am sitting in a place that had other people using there laptop.
Here is where it went down hill. Very downhill in my opinion.
I (WE) were approached by a staff member, who in all honesty was very polite and explained that due to aesthetic reasons they preferred me and the other person to go upstairs and use our laptop due to the big window and the view from the outside.
**Lets be honest, this makes no sense**
Now, while I would have loved to know this in advance, prior to grabbing my food and drink, getting comfy, and having my laptop and food in front of me, so that I could have more easily gone upstairs.
I love rules, I own rules, the dude abides by rules. A sign would have been a much better way of expressing your interest in having all of us nasty looking working stiffs, and to be fair, a lovely lady on her lunch break (which was cut short as she was a little more put off by the «rule». I would have read the sign, understood that you preferred to have computers upstairs (no reason needed, especially a completely ridiculous one) and nothing would have been ever heard of me and this place most like would have not only gotten 4or 5 stars instead of this. I would have also left with about $ 20 bucks more of pastries when I left the place. .Instead I am upstairs, nursing my tea, waiting for my companion to be finished and then getting in my car (as I am passing through) and finding another place to grab some road snacks. Which, buy the way, the person who left after her shortened lunch break sent me down the road to a nice little gourmet place that I am sure will be fantastic.
So lets review: Café, WiFi! (first rule in running a café/​restaurant… don’t take your self to seriously. and the 18 year old staff member was certainly taking this rule way to seriously.)
BTW: Thank you for the sign telling me exactly where you would like me to sit while I am visiting your establishment.
sorry, not finished yet, I would like to stress that the person that took my order was acting like she would have much rather been sticking hot pokers in her eyes then being there, I even left a 100% tip on $ 5 to hopefully brighten her day.
Oh well…

My only complaint is that they didn’t open until 8:30 last Sunday… I volunteered to pick up goodies for my friends since we had a hockey game at the local rink later that morning.
The chocolate apricot scone that I had was still warm. SOOO good. The muffins that I brought back were also still warm and they got rave reviews. I could do some serious damage on the baked goods in this place.
Coffee was fresh, hot and really good. Just had to ask the nice folks behind the counter for some half and half — they hadn’t set them up yet. Cut them some slack… they just opened.
The bookstore is very cool — was before… but not this trip. Next time. I’ll consume some serious calories again there as well.

A gem!
Fresh baked goods and wonderful large upstairs area to enjoy a latte and write in your journal or chat with friends is so very appealing. Their scones are especially wonderful
Haven’t tried their lunch specials but it’s filled to the brim with patrons so I am sure the food is equally as delish.
Many vegetarian options. Well, everywhere is Vermont is vegetarian friendly. And, vegetarian friendly with amazing concoctions unlike other areas of the country.
In the summer, you can take you food outside and sit on a little patio near the ice cream shop.

Located in one of my all time favorite independent new book stores (there will always be a soft spot for Boston and Brattleboros rambling used book stores) spiral press serves up hot and cold drinks and a good selection of foods. At times, thanks to the surrounding mêlée known as Manchester Outlet Stores the store can end up with a bit of a wait for their goodness. Many of their items range from good to great.
why three stores, for a place I look forward to going to? it’s the hit more miss nature of the place. you might have your drink in minutes or 20 minutes or longer — and there is little indication of which group you might fall into. Also, the last time I was there i got a hot chocolate, that was luke warm and tasted like swiss miss. I really just needed the free-​internet, so i sipped away, until my girlfriend showed up to join me, and had picked me up a wonderfully pipping hop beautiful chai latte.
The staff, though occasionally haggard during the busies seasons, are always friendly and do the best they can with what I imagine most of the year is a pretty low key place. This can be a problem, as I feel they don’t rush people enough when the lines get long. Nothing is more frustrating than a line out the door, and some idiot, who’s been waiting in line for 15 minutes, suddenly realized he has no idea what he wants.
so yes, Spiral Press is A-​OK, but +1 star because I know when I’m in town I’ll be going here, so there is something about it I do love.

Spiral Press Café is a great place to stop by if you’re ever in Manchester Center. The sandwiches are a little pricey, but the paninis are delicious. I usually have a hard time with paninis because the bread often cuts the roof of my mouth; the bread here was toasty enough to enjoy, but not too hard or sharp to shred my mouth to bits. The roast beef was excellent and it came with a pickle and kettle chips. They also have a half sandwich (cold only) and soup combo. Their cheddar chowder was great.
The coffee is as good as advertised and they make a great mocha latte. In addition to the food, this café doubles as a bookstore! It seems like an odd combination, but it works in a small Vermont town like Manchester. There is plenty of additional seating upstairs with free wi-​fi.