• Tuna Melt w/ fries $6.50
• Mammoth chocolate covered rice krispie treat $2.25

Coffee News is a great local coffee shop that has the added benefit of serving some pretty good food.

I enjoyed my tuna melt, it was not the same old, same old, so that was good. The fries were very good...hand cut and seasoned. The Rice Krispie treat was a good rendition and hit the spot.

Overall it has a great location and has good food so if you are in the neighborhood I would check it out.

• ˝ lb. burger with bleu chese and fries $7.45
• Cappuccino hazelnut cheesecake $4.75

Coffee News Café is a coffee house on Grand Avenue near Macalester College in St. Paul. I enjoyed the burger, a big hunka, hunka meat. I was surprised to see a burger on the menu and thought it would be a good test to see if they could produce a high quality burger. The good bleu cheese helped, and although the burger itself was satisfactory, the quality of the hamburger did not rise to greatness. The fries, in contrast, were fantabulous in every dimension. A generous portion of made-to-order French fries were delivered to the table hot and fresh with a portion of skin left on for texture. The real genius was cooking the French fries with minced garlic that covered the potatoes, a unique treat.

The cappuccino hazelnut cheesecake was adequately priced, but not as great as it looks. By the last few bites (on a full stomach), I was struggling to finish the dessert.

This might be a decent, safe first date place. That is, you could meet for lunch or dinner, have some coffee and dessert and see if you’re compatible. If not, you’re not paying a large bill for striking out. If the other person turns out to be from the Planet Zircon, you can trust that there will be many people milling about, and you can quickly exit safely. If you’re compatible, you can enjoy each other’s company for hours without feeling rushed, perhaps watching people and traffic go by on Grand Avenue as you sip coffee at a sidewalk table. However, if you are swinging for the fences, you might want to choose somewhere else; at the Coffee News Café, you order at the front counter, and the ambience is truly college coffee house, nothing upscale.