Java Train Coffee Shop

About.com Rating 5 Star Rating

User Rating 2.5 Star Rating (2 Reviews) Write a review

By Clara James, About.com Guide

See More About:

Java Train Coffee Shop in Como, St. Paul - Graffiti artwork on the outside

Clara James

The Bottom Line

Java Train Coffee Shop in the Como neighborhood of St. Paul is a great local coffee shop with large indoor and outdoor play spaces for children, and a quiet space for adults.

Visit Their Website

Pros

Wonderful indoor and outdoor play areas

Cons

Parking restrictions outside

Description

1341 Pascal Street
St. Paul, MN 55108
Telephone 651-646-9179
There is street parking outside but watch for parking restrictions and short limit spaces because of the nearby fairgrounds.

Guide Review - Java Train Coffee Shop

Java Train is a large independent coffee shop midway between Como Park and the State Fairgrounds in St. Paul.

Java Train is best known for being family friendly. The inside is divided into a quiet space, and a children's play area.

Inside is a caboose-shaped play house with lots of toys and real trains running on the roof. And then outside on the patio is another play house, sand box, and plenty more toys. There's lots of room to run, parasols for shade, and the patio is fenced in to corral the kids safely. Why trains? The owner's father is a train lover, and built all the play structures.

It gets packed with children and parents, especially on weekday mornings, but usually thins out around lunchtime and early afternoon as the tots head home for naps.

The coffee is good, they tend to use more foam than milk in their drinks so ask if you prefer your cappuccino wet. The muffins and other baked goods are lovely homemade, and they have a small but expanding selection of breakfast and lunch items.

Visit Their Website

User Reviews

2 out of 5

I want to like it..really, Member stpaulmommy

A friend and I had a discussion while we were with our kids at Java Train about what we'd do differently with a kid oriented coffee shop. It may not be totally fair to nitpick here, but I don't know that this place does anything all that well. The food teeters somewhere between so-so and not so great, the kids area inside isn't very clean, you can't see into the playhouse, and the sandbox is filled with bits of garbage and opens directly onto the street. The staff is unsmiling, slow and completely uninterested. We've been there twice and both days the indoor kids area was packed with people and the much bigger adult side of the shop was quiet and sparsely populated so we sat on that side. I don't know, I think I'll stick with buying a cup of coffee at my neighborhood spot and going to the park with the children from now on. It's a shame because St. Paul just doesn't do kid friendly spaces as well as neighborhoods in Minneapolis like Linden Hills do.

Write a review

1 out of 6 people found this helpful.
Was this review helpful to you? Yes | No

See all 2 reviews