If there is one thing that Pullman and the greater Palouse have in abundance, it’s cafes.

The residents of the Palouse do not need to worry about getting their caffeine fix and these joints often are a great place to study and hang out. I cannot recount the number of times I have spent studying for finals in some cafe, my books wildly splayed out in front of me.

With all of these locations stuffed around the Palouse, you cannot really go wrong with whatever one you end up at. It also means that some may slip through the cracks, and that was exactly the case for this week’s cafe.

If you read the title, you already know that I am talking about Crybaby Cafe. Let’s see if it stands out among the rest of the Palouse cafes.

Located at 600 NE Colorado St, it is housed in the historic Adams Mall on College Hill, or in layman’s terms, right next to Greek Row.

Parking, generally speaking, is pretty good; there is a spacious parking lot above the historic college mall and a reasonable amount of street parking. As someone who does not like to parallel park, I usually take the first option.

Their hours are pretty easy to follow, separated into three different categories. The first is Monday–Thursday, for which they are open between 7 a.m.–10 p.m. On Friday, the opening time is the same but closes at 11 p.m. The close date is the same for Saturday, but on the weekends they open at 8 a.m. Got that all?

Up-to-date information can be found on their website, including hours and their menu.

With that being said, let’s dive into Crybaby.

The atmosphere of the cafe is great, giving off a very personable and welcoming atmosphere. This is a double-edged sword however as there is not a ton of sitting or waiting room in the main body of the shop and if it is packed you may find it difficult to find somewhere to actually sit.

Fret not; as the weather begins to warm up, there is plenty of seating outside, which is both well taken care of and spacious. All we need is for the Palouse to make up its mind if it is spring yet or not.

The service at Crybaby Cafe is the high point of the experience, as the baristas and bartenders are both knowledgeable and helpful. You never feel like you are wasting anyone’s time with your orders and questions, and they have always helped direct me toward something on the menu that I might actually like to eat.

The menu is a solid pillar of the cafe but by no means exceptional within the realm of the greater Palouse cafes. They have the typical fare of caffeine-related drinks and cafe sandwiches, but nothing you would not expect. One point of interest is the number of drinks that have alcohol included in them — a point in Crybaby’s favor for those above 21.

Enough ragging on the menu.

It is good. Maybe not great, but at the very least, it has all the hallmarks a cafe is supposed to have and I can’t really fault them for not reinventing the wheel. The offerings they have are decently extensive and the change up with the amount of dirty drinks they provide is enough to give the menu a little spice.

On this particular outing, I ordered a red bull Italian soda and a Cubano sandwich. Altogether it came out to less than $17 after the tip, which seemed like a pretty good price. The service continued its trend, as the baristas chatted with me while making my drink and sandwich.

The food and drink came out relatively fast, and before you knew it, I was diving in. The drink was pretty good, though it is hard to make a Redbull-cherry combination taste bad. It was very sweet for those who have not tried them before, so if you are trying to avoid sugar, I would steer clear of this drink as well.

The Cubano was pretty decent all things considered, though nothing really to write home about. For the price, the flavors were rich and blended together nicely, a perfect brunch food to take on the rest of my day — but nothing really stood out. Still an enjoyable sandwich though, and I may even order it again.

That really sums up the experience I had at Crybaby; it was overall positive but nothing that really broke the mold. That is not a bad thing! I had a good time, enjoyable food and drink and would probably come back. Either way, you should try it out for yourself.

If you know of some food spots that I have not tried yet that you are just dying to brag about to your friends, let me know by emailing [email protected].