Hope Café

This place is closed to the public and only caters private events

I first fell in love with Hope Café after a friend begged me to go to lunch with her about 7 months ago. As soon as you walk into Hope Café, you feel relaxed and like you are truly on your «lunch break.» The staff is always friendly, and bend over backwards to make you happy. Best customer service I’ve experienced in a while (and I’m in the restaurant biz).
My favorite is the Ham & Cheddar Croissant — get it toasted, yum! They’ll add any topping you like to it — and it’s awesome — I might need to stop by there after I write this review…(:
They also have an espresso bar — and their Chai Lattes are the best around — vanilla or spiced (I prefer spiced). Served in cute mugs for in house.
Hope Café also has Open Mic on Friday nights and they have worship service and bible studies throughout the week. Great cause, great service, great place!

List of things I love about this place:
1. Free wifi that’s fast and easy to access.
2. TV’s all over the place… if I want to watch sports, I can. Or the news, I can. Or check up on my stocks, I can.
3. Large, wide-​open atmosphere. This place is huge!
4. Fresh sliced, made to order deli sandwiches & salads — the food is awesome.
5. They serve Larry’s Beans (
) which means they’re coffee is locally roasted by one of the best roasters in the country.
6. They have a top-​of-​the-​line espresso machine. For those of you who are coffee connoisseurs, you’ll appreciate that they have a La Marzocco machine and they use a naked portafilter. They’re espresso (Larry’s secret espresso) is incredible, and I know that they calibrate their shots daily.
7. Open mic nights on Friday night are a great time!
8. They serve Breyers ice cream — 8 flavors! And milkshakes and smoothies!
9. Live music every Saturday night.
10. The place is non-profit…they funnel all their profits into local organizations and ministries. This means that the money I paid for lunch yesterday is going to help the homeless in Raleigh, or going towards the Woman’s Sheter (and other local places). It’s nice to know that by eating here I’m indirectly helping our local community in profound ways.
11. They have a private conference room… that’s just a nice feature.
12. You can do call ahead ordering for pick-​up or even have it delivered! And they do catering!
There’s more. but I’ll stop. I might be slightly biased, but I think this may be one of the best coffee shops in the Raleigh area. Definitely worth a look at!

I’m at Hope Café right now as I Unilocal about it, so first of all… they have wireless that isn’t a pain to access… big plus for a coffee shop! I enjoyed my Noah’s Ark sandwich… a combination of ham, turkey, roast beef, bacon, and cheese on a very fresh croissant. And Seth… they now do throw in chips with their sandwiches, so it looks like they listened to you. :-) They host live Christian music bands on a regular basis and two Sunday worship services. Soul Evidence, a new band doing their second concert, is here tonight putting on an enjoyable and soul lifting performance. The café has attracted a good crowd of all ages. I’ll be back and will Unilocal some more about the coffee once I’ve actually tried it :-)

The place is calm and friendly but still upbeat. Staff is friendly, but for the price of food they could at least throw in some chips with the sandwiches. Otherwise a great place.

What a wonderful coffee shop. Hope Café is a Christian based coffee shop where all proceeds go to local missions and ministries. On Saturday evenings they have live bands playing Christian music. In keeping with the overall theme, Hope Café makes their coffee with Larry’s beans. The prices are far more reasonable than much of their competition.
This coffee shop is huge; spacious with plenty of seating. In fact, it’s probably one of the larger coffee shops I’ve been in, but probably because they have live bands. The coffee, for those who don’t take it to go, is served in real mugs.
Café is somewhat of a misnomer, as Hope Café doesn’t have a large food selection — mostly light foods consisting of 4 or 5 sandwich selections, a soup of the day and bagels and croissants. Although I didn’t try the food, I can say the coffee was perfectly brewed .
The overall vibe was very serene. It reminds me of a true coffeehouse rather than a café. It has dark wood floors, tables, and chairs which balance the openness of the space. I’m not sure how well the open concept works with live bands, though; it could be pretty loud. Even with the five or so TVs over the windows your eye can’t help but be drawn to the outdoors or the beautiful artwork by local artists. From what I could tell, every month Hope Café features a different local artist.
And Hope Café has free Wi-​fi, which makes it an even better choice for enjoying the coffee and supporting local ministries and missions.

Considering it is a Christian Café that serves the typical coffee flair, but in real mugs, the place is wide open and somewhat inviting! Big leather couches to plop down in, typical tables and chairs too. some screen TV’s with the news broadcasting. They have christian music for the music lovers and live christian bands on Saturdays. One thing I do really like is the art that is on display. Local artists that I can tell. Hopefully my artist friend can get some of her stuff hung soon!
I haven’t had the pleasure of going on a Saturday, but I can imagine if you’re into that kind of stuff, that it would be inspiring!
If you want something to eat, I guess alot is left to the imagination. I had a pecan pie yesterday that was like I bought from the store. Nothing to write home about. Maybe they should get homemade baked goods in there, not just ready made. I’m just saying. it would would make it more memorable of a place.
I do have to say, they have been gracious enough to let us have our networking meeting there in one of the back rooms. Which is great. Thanks for that!
Overall, I think the place has potential to make a different kind of an impact on the typical coffee house in an areana of coffee houses that are abundant. Hopefully this one survives the economy. Good luck!