A little history, a little review, and a little opinion...

Spyhouse was in the news back in 2020 when workers were striking due to inadequate COVID protection measures. Baristas were announcing intentions to unionize, management started firing employees, and thus began the strike at all six Spyhouse locations.

I had just quit my barista job a few months earlier. I was/am immunocompromised, so much was still unknown about COVID, and much like toilet paper, masks and sanitizer were hard to come by. I had a lot of sympathy for the Spyhouse baristas who were putting their own health in danger and not getting the support they felt they needed from their higher ups.

Spyhouse workers eventually voted against unionization and many ended up quitting as a result. Spyhouse management started paying hazard pay soon after the vote - one of the asks of employees who wanted to unionize - but many of the asks that prompted the strike were not fulfilled.

All this to say, I likely hold some bias against Spyhouse as an institution. But that's not what I am reviewing here. These are my thoughts on Spyhouse as a place to do remote work - not barista work. And that's the great thing about quantitative data. It doesn't care about my feelings.

Enough about my snowflake emotions. You're here for the review.

I'll get right to it: Spyhouse on Nicollet is not my favorite place to work. When I first moved to Whittier and was looking for new coffee shops to work at, Spyhouse was one of my first tries. I had stopped by their St Paul location a few times in college but every location has its own quirks and I hadn't been to the Nicollet location before.

When you walk in, it seems like a fine place to do work. It's big, there's a lot of seating, and a lot of places to plug in. It's not too loud and you can have your own space or work with friends. That changes when you open your laptop. The wifi is not only slow, but unreliable. At times it would go out completely, but when it was working it hovered around only 20mbps. For context, Comcast does not sell home wifi plans slower than 75mbps. If you're regularly using the internet for your work, this probably won't cut it.

But at least you will have power!

One thing we do like about Spyhouse Nicollet is there are a lot of outlets. You don't have to worry about running out of battery as you run out of patience with the internet. The environment is also pretty mellow. Some of the Spyhouse locations we've been to have not had that low key environment, but Spyhouse Nicollet is comfortable to work at. However, despite these positives, we would not recommend meetings here as the wifi just is not reliable enough.

Enough about my laptop! What about my need for speed (caffeine)?

In an earlier section I said your opinion of Spyhouse might be affected when you open your laptop, but really our first turn off was when we opened our wallets. While Spyhouse does not charge extra for alternative milks, their base prices are high. Kind of like when TVs are 50% off on Black Friday but the price was raised 70% the day before. Spyhouse is the most expensive coffee shop we've reviewed so far with a small latte coming in at $6.30 and a small coffee at $3.50. The taste of the coffee is fine - not bad but nothing to write home about.

We are fans of their seasonal drinks and they have many dairy free and non-coffee options, but it was difficult for us to overlook the prices. If you're a vanilla latte girlie, be prepared to shell out close to $10 for a small.

We had similar thoughts on the food. Spyhouse has fairly good pastries. We give them a 3/5. We wish they had more food options, but the options they do have are pretty good. We especially like the pastries from Patisserie 46.

So there you have it. Our short and (not so) sweet Spyhouse review. We probably won't be working there much, so if you don't want to be graced with our presence Spyhouse Nicollet is a great choice!

Pro tip: Get the most bang for your buck and get those non-dairy milks with no upcharge!