Café Eclectic

i go there to read during the day and have my SECOND espresso. never will they see me at night because the teenyboppers and college kids start hording in and if you don't like immature invasiveness, stay away before dark!

it's overall a nice place - especially during the day. the workers are always very kind to me so i tip them well. they really seem to want to please. the restroom is pretty good, nice and clean, for the most part.

my only real complaint, daytime or not, is the furniture. boy do they need to dump those ratty couches! and the whole medieval theme is totally wasted. pretty lousy idea really, most notably because it doesn't match the food, drinks, customers, workers or music. speaking of music, they really don't think twice about letting a cd skip for fifteen minutes or so.

the food is average, but they aim to please with the drinks.

nice place, but i dont reccommend taking a date over there if you wanna talk and get to know the person cuz the music is so loud. u cant hear a damn word sumone is saying... but overall its a very funky fresh place to go to

medieval castle meets east village is the best way to describe the place. the drinks are great, the food is fairly good, the music is usually terrible and too loud, and of course almost the entire place is a smoking zone for highschool kids trying to revive punk.

i wouldnt have any complaints if it werent for the managers. there is one guy who constantly yells at the poor staff and is not helpful or accomadating at all.

try cianci (used to be suzette) for a nice dine or evening coffee.

since when does throwing a bunch of garbage into a blender, playing lousy music and throwing the title "cafe" on the cover qualify an establishment as being "funky". i'd imagine the furniture has mostly been hauled in from sidewalks (left by the original owners as GARBAGE). and, oh lordy, the paintings in the place? you have GOT to be sh*tting me. the thing about cafe eclectic is that there's nothing great about it at all. there's just no alternative to it in the area. it's an attempt to fill a void. i vote for someone to open some competition in the area and knock those pseudo artists out of business!

This dumpster they called "Cafe" should have gone to the garbage a long time ago... along with their "salvaged" garbage of furniture and the whole Medieval concept. Have you seen their website? Check their "around the world" page... doesn't go beyond Florida!
Pretty sad!
Al.

Plus the big room, which should be the one to really lounge in, avoid the draft coming in - is reserved for smokers! That place couldn't BE any smokier already!! Why give them the big comfy space? Plus the non-smoking section gets full so quickly.
it needs a wall knocked down or something adn just make it non-smoking all around

Can we not hate on cafe eclectic? It seems the only people who make comments on this website are those who have negative attitudes... Why don't you try running your own restaurant/cafe/bar?
I work in food service and have worked at a lot of plaves that are bigger shitholes...

Cafe ecletic has great management and serves an important purpose in montclair... As my ex boyfriend said, "oh if we didn't drink we would go there every night" (high compliment)

oh, right! god forbid anyone give an HONEST review in a REVIEW SECTION!
WORLD PEACE!! NO ONE SAY NEGATIVE ABOUT ANYTHING OR ANYONE EVER!!!

not a classy place at all as if any of you deserved to be in a classy place anyway, it does not take a lot of time and effort to rip an establishment apart, especially if you know jack shit about it...don't be bitter about the smoking, after april 15th you can have your precious lounge back, if any of you had any idea how hard it is to accomodate all you yuppies you wouldn't be complaining...the staff goes thru so much stress to make sure you are as happy as possible, and all you do is complain, bitch, moan, and you don't say anything until you've got a computer to hide behind, please keep the bullshit to yourselves and hey, there's a starbucks right up the street...

Hey, I like Cafe Ecletic, It's one of the reason's I moved to Montclair. It's laid back, great drinks, good food, great deserts, funky atmosphere, free wi-fi and I've always gotten great service from friendly people who seem to like to be there. When I'm there in the evening there have been way too hip young kids there, but they're surprisingly nice to each other. Definately not an uptight snobby lounge, so yeah, i guess if that's what you're looking for, Eclectic is not it.

Blackberry and I stopped by yesterday and were upset to see it closed. We found out today, to our relief that they are just doing some repairs and cleaning out the pre-April 15 tobacco smell, and they should be open tomorrow.

Great place. I'm looking forward to my after dinner mint.

recently went there on a "date", felt very uncomfortable. One room was disgustingly smoky-so grateful for the new law-, and the staff propped open the front door on a freezing night, so we had a cold front wafting across us, until we got up and closed the door. the service was fine, no complaints there, but the coffee was so-so, and the six dollar desserts were kinda stale, not very tasty. don't think we'll be back

This place is pretty fun, and has a nice unique atmosphere and attitude that is hard to find in a starbuckized coffee landscape. Worth checking out, if you don't like it you can finish your coffee and go, if you do, you can hang out for a bit.

I don't know when they added food other than desserts to the menu, but I just tried it last night and the food is shameful. On the 3 items we ordered - paninis and a sandwich, there was a truly miniscule amount of food between the bread slices, which sat lonely and unattractively on a white plate. They looked uninviting and tasted worse. There was about 25¢ worth of ingredients there; we couldn't believe they served that to us. It felt like a small snack, which had it been $3 would have been fine, but not for $7.95. Stick to beverages and desserts if you go.

I keep going back to give it another try, but there is just a vibe there that is not a comfortable coffee house to me. Don't get me wrong, the coffee was fine. I thought it was more so the waitstaff that gave off a we don't need your business sort of attitude. I will give you an example. Last week, my boyfriend and I decided to sit outside and have some iced coffees, we went inside and asked the waitress if we could have a table outside, she said yes and we sat down. minutes went by, more minutes went by but they never came outside. After a good amout of time we decided to move on and left. Now, don't get me wrong, if I was suppose to go in and order I would have done that, but it was jst this I don't really care if you are hear or not that I seem to always get when I go there.
Now, has anyone heard about the new tea house (hopefully coffee too?)that will be replacing the closed health food market on Church Street?

i have been going to Eclectic since the day it first opened, and i still love it, (but hate the new smoking rule,its a coffee house you want health food go to veggie heaven for gods sake) anyway , i have never in the almost ten years i have been going had a problem, but having worked as a waiter at many restaurants i know that things take time, and that no matter what, I AM NOT the only customer in the place, (something that many patrons seem to forget), the staff works hard to try and accomidate the many people who come their from all walks of life,young, old , rich, poor , artists and Business people, young adults etc etc., and does its best to seat you as quickly as possible(even when a demanding group of 8 or 9 so called "Adults" shows up after drinking enough liqour at one of the many BRB eateries, to open a small pub) and Julio is always more than happy to try and make your visit better , if you have a problem, ask him, he's always very approachable.

the biggest issue is the yuppie/self important losers who feel that nothing is more important than themselves,piling their computers and book bags, and paper work all over , lying down on the furniture, they demand this demand that,let their verminous little yuppie larva run around and bother others, or scream thier heads off, berate thier servers once they leave the table, and often times stiff them on the tips when something beyond thier control happens(like running out of a favorite dessert),and you expect them to be happy and smiling all the time, please non of you complaing would be able to handle what they to all night for even an hour.

And god forbid asking you 48 year old wanna be hippies to take your feet off the tables or couches and putting your shoes back on, i for one dont want my coffee on a table that has had to have your feet removed from them after walking around bloomfield avenue in your ratty sandels all day .

at least when they tell the kids to do it , they listen.and dont get all huffy.

If the youth crowed bothers so many people, then how come that other coffee house on Valley road folded,they were catering to you older folks werent they ??sounds to me like he's doing something right , and thank God for that , It is the one bright spot in a otherwise self centered,and snobby town.

Jay:

The Coffe house on Valley Road folded because it fucking sucked.

No other reason...!

A someone suggested above, Cafe Eclectic definitely fills a void. It's a bar-like place for kids to hang out in when they're not old enough to drink yet. It's not really for adults, so I'm not surprised that adults are saying they don't like it.

Props to CE for getting rid of the ratty furniture and replacing it with some very nice NEW furniture... I was surprised when I went in there with my yuppy laptop and spread out my paperwork all over the table... It is actually a nice place to connect to the internet and have a very decent espresso... Food is typical coffeehouse... nothing special, and the prices are a little high (try $4 for a hot chocolate), but it beats starbucks for seating and table area...

Cafe Eclectic is ouver. The coffee sucks, the food is trash, and the service is lauzy....

way to spell their Tommie.

I like to take all my advice on were I should hang out from people who cant' spell.

I love the cafe, their Esspresso is fanatstic, even the regular coffee is great ,

been going thier for years, only time i have starbucks is when the cafe is closed for holidays

The chocolate milkshake is great.

http://www.myofo.com
Order Food Online

The desserts and drinks are great, but the new decor in the lounge is just shameful.

James, isn't that spelled fantastic?

yours truly,

Tommy

i like the coffee, but truth be told the decorations have got to go. all they are missing is a fucking cigar store indian for christ sakes.the staff and the owner are really nice but the owner's wife is a straight up cunt, she's rude and never smiles. thats enough to turn anyone off. i feel bad for the owner, she must have te patience of a saint to put up with her pissy mug.

p.s. only go in the daytime unless your 12 or under

i like the coffee, but truth be told the decorations have got to go. all they are missing is a fucking cigar store indian for christ sakes.the staff and the owner are really nice but the owner's wife is a straight up cunt, she's rude and never smiles. thats enough to turn anyone off. i feel bad for the owner, she must have te patience of a saint to put up with her pissy mug.

p.s. only go in the daytime unless your 12 or under

I think its time to wipe the comment slate clean here, do commenst from 3 years ago, really hold true?

"way to spell their Tommie"

ahhahahahahhahahahahhaahhahah

The service here seems to be getting even worse. Last time I went, it took close to thirty minutes to get a lemonade and a coffee, neither of which were particularly good.