Maybe a good job for the casual student employee? For full-time work look elsewhere. - Cafe Specialist/Barista Barriques Employee Review

3.0
Apr 17, 2014
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Local company, which means they're relatively laid back about the dress code, swearing, time off, etc. If you go to the wine tastings (highly recommended & still free for employees as of this review) you will get to know the owners and management pretty well. If they like you, you can stay forever and do whatever you want, no problem.

Cons

They will fight giving you fair wage compensation, even if minimum wage goes up. Tips are terrible. They will try to talk/intimidate you out of taking breaks no matter how long your shifts are. They will monitor your behavior on the security feeds, rather than calling you out in person and generally reinforcing good work habits. I've seen half a dozen people get fired for things that literally every other employee also does - no warnings or communication about how the job could be better done - I can only assume that the owner happened to be in a bad mood and took it out on those people. They coddle terrible customers, which means the same awful people keep coming back and yelling louder to get their way. Management tends to be temperamental, so you never know what kind of work environment you're walking into on any given day.

Explore other reviews about Barriques

5.0
Jun 20, 2023
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

I loved it at Barriques. I worked at multiple locations over the years and filled in at others, and the team at every one was always a great group of people. As a queer person I always found team members and management to be queer friendly. During my time there tips were always generous enough to create a paycheck which was at least $14/hour. Felt proud of the quality of food and drink I was serving. Education was provided to create a good knowledge base of coffee, tea and food service. I am a "coffee snob" to this day because working here raised my standards. Owners and management worked to help people navigate unemployment during COVID shutdown.

Cons

I think my cons are likely not an issue anymore now that it is three years past the beginning of COVID. Right after COVID began, hours were scarce and the shifts you did have were often done alone due to business slowdowns. This was lonely and also frustrating when you rarely did get a rush with no backup team member. Owners weren't great at communication during restart (but was anyone any good at communicating right after Spring 2020?). My only general con is that sometimes it was difficult to communicate with people between shifts (in food service I've found there is always a bit of push/pull between the "morning" and "night" peeps), and the general managers at locations are stretched too thin with responsibilities that they have very little time to lend a hand in interpersonal issues. While Barriques culture encourages consistency, it can be difficult to get everyone even at one location on the same page at times. Ultimately, way more pros than cons and I would definitely recommend working there and go back if I could.

4.0
Apr 8, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Great environment, great people, very fun job

Cons

Can get very busy at times, management suffers sometimes.

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