Catalina Coffee Company is tucked away 1 block from the beach on Catalina Avenue. Sandwiches, homemade soups, and an awesome cobb salad fill out their post-breakfast menu (yogurt/fruit parfaits and breakfast burritos are the main breakfast dishes other than bakery items). A large variety of flavored, decaf or caffeinated, and individual brews are available as the coffees. A large assortment of espresso drinks is available as well.

Pastries: They make their own cinnamon buns, muffins, scones, cookies, and brownies. Fancier cakes are supplied by another bakery.

The cobb salad is not a traditional cobb; rather, it has roasted chicken, candied pecans (my favorite!), cranberries, blue-cheese crumbles, apple-smoked bacon pieces, slices of tart (I believe usually braeburn) apples, romaine lettuce, and a sweet/tangy dressing. Half (and they do sell it by halves or whole) is usually plenty and a good way to go if you want dessert or a half sandwich or cup of soup.

The sandwiches are filling and tasty. My favorite is the Catalina turkey on squaw bread—sliced deli turkey with coleslaw. The three-cheese veggie (your choice of three cheeses, tomatoes, onions, sprouts, avocado, bell peppers, and lettuce) is also tasty. Sandwiches are served with a pickle spear.

The soup is made from scratch and varies in tastiness. I like their cream-based soups a lot. The chicken noodle soup I had recently wasn't bad, it just tasted like it was only seasoned with some pepper and little else.

The decor is relaxed—lots of old but cushy chairs, couches, etc. Lighting is adequate for reading and game-playing. If you're going to knit, I recommend going in the daytime and parking yourself in the corner near the roaster—there's lots of natural light through the nearly full-length windows in that location.

A couple of computers with high-speed internet access are available. A mystery book library/used-book section takes up the walls of one section of the coffee house. The fireplace is always lit on cold and/or rainy days—not that we get a lot of those here, but hey, it's nice. The owners are more than happy to have groups hold meetings (as long as people buy drinks etc.—a perfectly reasonable request). I've held a couple discussion groups here.

Regular hours are Monday to Friday 6:30am to 10:00pm and Saturday and Sunday 7am to 10pm. Call first for holiday hours.

Catalina Coffee Company