Review of The Henry

For those of you who don't know, I'm a huge fan of Fox Concepts. I think they just do everything right. When I heard that there was a Fox Concept restaurant that had a coffee shop incorporated, I had to go.

I got a nice gift card from my manager for Christmas and I was only going to use on The Henry. My 7 year anniversary was at the end of February and my wife and I agreed we would just go have a nice dinner. I capitalized on this opportunity to try their coffee shop too.

First, let me just state that the ambiance, service and food did not disappoint. They are consistently good at every one of their shops. It is a little more expensive then I would normally go for, but hey, I had a gift card!

When dinner was over and I was crazy stuffed, we made our way over to the coffee bar. I had to take my coffee to go because I was paying daycare for my little one and that ain't cheap.

The coffee bar is like a divide in the restaurant. One side is table service, the other is a tables and chairs and laptops, etc. The bar was simple, but looked nice. It is actually tucked up under a stair case. One aspect that I was not particularly fond of was that they brew their coffee back in the kitchen (probably due to plumbing issues), so there was no barista for a while. I purchased a cup of black coffee and was directed to a pot off to the side. I thought this to be kind of odd, because Fox usually balances fine dining and service with a sort of accessibility. This felt more like a pretty basic coffee shop.

I was in a bit of a hurry so I didn't get to ask the barista my normal questions, but she was quite nice and had a pleasant smile. That's most important. The coffee they serve is from a local roaster, Forster & Burnett (http://www.forsterandburnettcoffee.com/), which looks to be a brand of Passport coffee. I haven't been real impressed with Passport coffees, but this one was an exception.

I want to take a moment and comment on the cup design. It's beautiful. Simple and elegant. I love it.

Now for the coffee...to be honest with you, I don't remember the details of the cup. Shame on me for not taking better notes. I do remember thinking it was really good. So good, that instead of throwing it away when I got home, I drank it cold when I got up in the morning. I know that's super lame, but its the best I got. Sorry.

Overall, yes, go check this out. If it wasn't so far away from my home, this would be my go to coffee shop. I left the pictures at the bottom so you could get a better look at the design.

*The lighted brick is clean and classy, but mixes with the urban feel.

 *See! Its like the Harry Potter of coffee bars.

 *Fox Concepts has an amazing designer.

 *I've seen a lot of places fail at the "Hodge Podge" approach to design. When you look around at the stuff, it is so random...but it just works.