4610 Poplar Ave
Memphis, TN 38117
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High Point Coffee

Cuisine: Coffee, Cafe, Coffeehouse

Offer Available!
Accipiter photo

Accipiter

 Chuckey, TN
 

Decent coffee, good ambiance and staff


EDIT: Aug 27, 2011
The Poplar and Highland location reopened about a year ago as “Poplar Perk’n.” Quality has improved under the new management, a change in coffee suppliers, and a return to higher-quality ingredients.
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EDIT: Sept 10, 2009
All three Memphis Highpoint Coffee locations were closed yesterday. They’re out of business.
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High Point Coffee might easily be overlooked as just another “Not Starbucks” coffee shop.

Looking at just the drinks, the coffee and other beverages are slightly better than Starbucks and competitively priced. Coffee is served with a free chocolate-covered expresso bean on the lid—a nice little touch and a good way to market the larger bags of said treats. High Point also offers bags of coffee in both roasted beans and ground roasted beans, but no raw beans. Again, these seem to be slightly better quality than Starbucks and competitively priced.

High Point also offers some snack-type items ranging from cookies, cake, and brownies to granola, muffins, rice crispy treats, and yogurt—as well as the chocolate covered espresso beans they tempt you with when you buy a coffee. While none of these items are produced fresh in the store, High Point has done some homework in locating quality products to stock. Once again, High Point is slightly better than Starbucks and competitively priced.

So if we consider Starbucks to be a 3-star norm for coffee shops, and High Point is only slightly better with their coffee and food, what makes High Point merit 4 stars instead of just 3? The atmosphere.

High Point lacks the pretense of Starbucks, possesses character, and is staffed by employees who are eclectic, intelligent, and witty. Employees get to pick the music, and they pick a wide variety of things to listen to—often things I’ve never heard before but are interesting. It’s just grounded more in the traditional coffee shop roots than the stale and sanitized big corporation coffee shops.

High Point seems to be looking at ways to cut costs (much like everyone else), but unfortunately it’s sometimes at the expense of quality. For example, they’ve moved from using Ghirardelli’s chocolate to using cheaper (and sub-par) chocolate syrups. More recently they changed the paper cups for serving coffee, but the new brand/style occasionally leaked. They’ve switched back in the past couple weeks, so it might have been an instance of backordered regular cups that mandated trying something new. The staff seemed to figure out the problem pretty quick and started using two cups to prevent leaking. High Point isn’t getting it all wrong, though: they offer free wireless internet access.

There are three locations in the city of Memphis, but the 4610 Poplar location is the crown jewel of the three. It appears to be a converted photo hut, combining a small but intimate interior with a fenced patio for when the weather is pleasant. There’s a lot of regulars that haunt the place and, if you’re in an extroverted mood, good conversation to be had.

It’d be neat if High Point would partner with local artists and allow them to hang artwork (with artist name and prices by each piece) on a rotating basis every week or three. It’d keep the interiors diverse, support local artists, draw in new business, and it’d further distinguish High Point from being a small-time Starbucks wannabe.

mocha latte and mocha frappuccino

This used to be a 4-star drink back when High Point used Ghirardelli’s chocolate syrup. They’ve since switched to some El Cheapo brand, sacrificing quality—and that 4th star that put them above Starbuck’s chocolate coffee beverages.

High Point also carries an El Cheapo “spicy” chocolate syrup as an alternative to their inferior chocolate syrup. It takes like low-grade Hershy’s with scrapings from an ashtray and should be avoided like the plague.

cinnamon roll

Soft, sweet, and perhaps a tad skimpy with the cinnamon, this is still one of the best snacks offered. It’s so big it’s practically a meal (if you ignore things like nutrition and the four food groups).

smoothie

Obviously this is a poor choice in the winter or after sunset, but it’s hard to beat sipping a cold smoothie out on the patio when the weather is hot. While certainly not a smoothie bar and with limited offerings, what High Point has isn’t too bad. (Carvel has some of the best smoothies I’ve ever had, but the nearest Carvel is about 200 miles from Memphis.) If you want to mix and match smoothie flavors, the staff will be glad to accommodate. My personal favorite is a 1:1:2 ratio of cranberry, strawberry, and four berry. Stay away from the banana creme pie smoothie: it just tastes weird.

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