The sounds of chimes can be heard when customers flood in-and-out of the Goodthing Coffee. Inside, the coffee bean grinder roars, as the ground beans get transferred into a dripper and its flavor prepares to be extracted. Tables and chairs surround the central service counter, creating a space that is lively and suitable for both quick visits or long productive hours.

Palo Alto’s cafe landscape is evolving quickly, with several establishments opening in the area. From new openings of specialty coffee shops to brunch cafes, these new additions reflect the growing appetite for quality drinks, unique atmospheres and collaborative work spaces. Each of these cafes embrace distinct menu items that separate themselves from the rest of the crowd, adding more to Palo Alto’s cafe scene.

With the number of cafes increasing, competition has shifted the attention from quantity to quality. Whether that is their drinks, food or atmosphere, each cafe approaches that experience differently, offering a take on what makes a spot worth returning to.

Verde set out to explore this new and evolving cafe landscape, highlighting three new cafes that have opened in the past year. This is what we found.

HATCHED:

Nestled in Town and Country Village, one of Palo Alto’s most recent additions is Hatched, which resides in Roost & Roast’s previous space, sharing the same owners. The vision for a brunch cafe was started between three people: the Poon brothers. According to Craighton Poon, the youngest, he grew up in the restaurant industry.

“[My] parents owned a restaurant called Express 7 in Mountain View, so it’s kind of in the family,” Poon said.

This family restaurant was one of the influences that made Craighton and his other younger brother quit their corporate jobs to help his oldest brother develop professional restaurants.

“Both my little brother and I, we did corporate world for 10 plus years,” Poon said. He was a CPA [certified public accountant] and I was a mechanical engineer, and we ended up leaving those jobs and joining our older brother to build more restaurants.”

Unlike traditional cafes where there is space to sit and study, Hatched is mostly takeout, with its only seating options being the chairs outside. With its opening on Jan. 6, Hatched serves breakfast and brunch, as well as high quality matcha and coffee drinks.

Mango Coconut Matcha Latte:

We ordered a Mango Coconut Matcha Latte ($7.50) with regular sweetness, whole milk and served cold. The coconut cream floated on the matcha, with mango jam sitting at the bottom.

To enjoy all the flavors best, we mixed everything together. The rich mango jam was sweet and contrasted with the bitter matcha.

The coconut foam was not overpowering, forming a smooth, well-rounded drink.

BFF Sandwich:

The BFF Sandwich ($11) is the simplest and cheapest sandwich on the menu. It contains scrambled eggs mixed in with cheese and arugula, topped off with caramelized onions and a garlic aioli served between two toasted buns.

The scrambled eggs are creamy and soft, melting into your mouth and the melted cheese added richness to the eggs. The arugula balances the platter, and the garlic aioli adds depth. Overall a solid egg sandwich.

YUMMY FUTURE:

On 170 University Avenue in downtown Palo Alto lies Yummy Future. Opening in October 2025, the cafe implements robot technology into a cafe setting, by using robots to autonomize the process of making coffee. According to Yummy Future’s website, people are at the center. The robot is the servant: it handles the busy work so that conversations can breathe, giving each person spark and a destination for connection.

This shop differentiates itself by having a robot barista, which is a one-arm machine that has the ability to transfer cups to various machines, ensuring that each drink is made with consistency and speed. Although the robot can create a majority of its drinks automated by itself, some drinks still need input from human baristas, as the arm is unable to pour, shake or stir.

Yummy Future believes in amplified hospitality, with baristas creating more moments for interaction with customers without having to do the job that its robot counterpart handles. With these values reflected as the mantra, they aim to make sure to be meaningful in every neighborhood served.

Yummy Future has a plethora of seating and long business hours for productive study to complete work, or get together and grab quality drinks.

Iced Caramel Macchiato:

The Iced Caramel Macchiato ($6) from Yummy Future is a very refreshing addition to the many drinks they offer. The beverage contains one shot of espresso sitting above a mixture of milk and vanilla syrup.

The sweetness of the vanilla syrup along with the milk help contrast the bitterness of the espresso shot. The caramel drizzled on top adds a rich buttery flavor to the drink, which complimented the other drink elements.

The drink was sometimes too sweet as there was lots of sugar and caramel syrup added, but we would recommend this to anyone who enjoys sweet coffee and has a sweet tooth.

GOODTHING COFFEE:

Just a couple of blocks away from Yummy Future lies another new high caliber cafe, Goodthing Coffee. With a modern and minimalistic atmosphere, The shop has an front-of-house service counter, with a handful of seating options inside and outside. Goodthing Coffee features a vast selection of unique menu items that have modern twists on traditional coffee.

Located on 532 Ramona Street, this marks the brand’s second location, adding onto its original location in Burlingame. The shops specialty is the Pistachio Einspänner, traditionally a Viennese coffee drink with sweet whipped cream on top of espresso.

The history behind these drinks is that Austrian carriage drivers needed to keep their hot drinks insulated so they topped them with whipped cream to keep them warm and also prevent any spillage when handling the horse carriage.

The drink has travelled across the globe, becoming more popularized with different variations and flavors representing the drink. Whether you are a coffee connoisseur, or looking for a comfortable place to spend the day, Goodthing Coffee offers both a welcoming atmosphere and quality drinks.

Pistachio Einspänner:

The most popular item, the Pistachio Einspänner ($9), is a drink with sweet pistachio whipped cream on top of espresso and milk.

The thick sweet cream has strong pistachio flavor on its own,  but when mixing the drink together, it seemed to get overpowered by the espresso. The milk doesn’t do much to smooth out the bitterness of the coffee, but adds to the creaminess as a whole.

If you are a coffee person, we would recommend this drink as the espresso flavor can be tasted strongly.

Additional reporting by Rohan Kini