JJ’s Coffee + Wine Bistro

Appears to be shuttered as of mid-​December.
Their website no longer lists this as a location, with their sole location still in Eden Prairie on Mitchell Road.

I would give this place a great review except for the fact that they are no longer in business (despite Unilocal’s attempts to say that they are open right now). There was no notice on their door or website about the closure — pretty disrespectful to regular customers. One day open, next day boarded up.

This is a great place to go. The food was very good and the price was right. Wonderful atmosphere and friendly service as well.

I didn’t know if I would like JJ’s, but I decided to check it out since it has a nice view of Lake Calhoun. I was pleasantly surprised by all the nice seating options, and easily found a patio spot overlooking the lake, although it isn’t that close to the lake, really.
I was happy to find that they gave us a discount on our order to compensate for the parking we’d just paid for.
Overall, I liked it. Not sure if I’ll become a regular, however.

Great patio with a view of Lake Calhoun! The beer and wine is very good, not so good food, and the service is always lacking on the patio. The servers are as friendly and helpful as can be, even though they’re totally «in the weeds»! I really hope they hire more servers so that it becomes a hot spot this summer.

Dear JJ’s,
You’re confusing. Make up your mind on what you want to be in life.
Ok, where to begin! This review goes specifically for the UPTOWN location.
Overall, great place to catch up with a friend over coffee OR light boozing. However, this place is pretty overpriced for what it really is.
My personal opinion is it’s only worth it to go during HH (3 – 6 and 9-​close everyday).
HH offers $ 4 house wines, $ 6 Select Flatbread Pizzas (such as Hawaiian, Greek, Supreme, etc) or $ 1 off almost everything else they serve (beer, wine, small plates).
Best deal are the flat bread Pizzas but NOT worth it at full price.
Would recommend going on Thursdays from 9 – 10:30 for HH AND a 20% off your bill if you live uptown (zip codes 55 405,55407,55 408,55409 and 55 416)
#DealOrNoDeal

Great waiting staff, fun atmosphere and wonderful seating outside. :-)

Came here for a friends acoustic set last friday. Did not eat anything but they have flatbreads, etc. Service was great. It was pretty dead but the servers/​bartenders were friendly.
4 stars for their prices. GB Preimums are $ 3.50, $ 2 at happy hour. Guiness is available but it is bottled.

Nice destination for coffee while on a «top o’ the morning’ bike ride. Lovely patio, cozy fireplace, tasty coffee.

Great space, amazing wi-​fi speeds, v. confusing food concept.
If you’re looking for an early morning or late afternoon spot to get some work done over coffee, have an intimate conversation with a colleague or friend or take a needed indoor break from the heat, JJs is your spot. They’ve got a decent selection of coffee, beer and wine. The few booths they have are nice intimate location for conversation including needed power supplies to charge up all your electronic gear. And the wi-​fi speeds are some of the best in uptown!
But the food concept just doesn’t make much sense. The bakery case is full of pre-​packagd goods that looked like they were from a gas station, not a fresh bakery. The bruschetta snack was simply soaked with way too much balsamic vinegar. And the smoothie I tried pretty generic tasting and not worth the pricey $ 4. Servers bring you water, but I think you have to order at the counter — I’m still not 100% sure how that all works…
My recommendation: come here to study, work or have that hour conversation with friends/​family where you need a bit more privacy. Skip JJs for any sort of meal. There is certainly room for improvement, they just need to consider a serious revamp of the food concept that better translates to the Uptown crowd who is used to fresh baked good from French Meadow and amazing food selections from Muddy Waters.

I showed up at JJ’s Coffee + Wine Bistro on a winter afternoon for a cup of coffee and some study time. The atmosphere was elegant and reserved, but quite relaxed. The general vibe was one of attentive service mixed with the ability to have some space to yourself. The booths were especially nice, and I loved that I could plug in my computer and spread out my books for some studying. However, the lighting did get a bit straining after a while. The coffee was wonderful, though perhaps lightly overpriced. I cannot make comment on the food itself as I did not order any. A great place to relax and read a book for a while, or to meet a friend.

Perfect place to stop after taking a lap around Lake Calhoun. Not a place I would go to study, but definitely a quality place to meet up for a date or with friends.
Drinks were excellent. From coffee to a martini, this place has anything you want. Not many options for food though.
They have an outside patio that is nice to sit on during the summer. Definitely has the Uptown vibe due to the buildings it’s located by.

I like this place. Sure, it’s got the generic contemporary thing going on since it’s in a newer Uptown apartment building, but it works nicely as both. Window-​side tables line both sides of the space and there are outlets available at each one to cater to the coffee crowd. There are a handful of recessed booths which serve both the coffee and wine crowds (one booth which had a Mac out switched over to wine), and the bar area is clearly a bar, though there s a Mac there too. This is another spot I should note where it’s acceptable to be to be on a laptop or read a book at the bar.
Shortly after I sat down with my espresso (it was OK, got a wee bit close to the burnt side of things), I saw that they have a happy hour that started just a few minutes after I arrived from 3 – 6 and then late night 9 til close. Daily. Not just weekdays, but every day. So the quibble about a lacking HH seems to have been addressed: $ 2 primos & Nordeast and $ 4 house wines. That and I can watch people skating and fly kites on Lake Calhoun from here. Not for much longer, though, but I won’t mind seeing the kayaks out on the water and more people biking and jogging.

JJ’s is my only café spot in Uptown. It’s got the elegance of a fine bistro yet the atmosphere is casual and inviting. I especially like how comfortable their booths are and the music is always balanced and soothing. Plus, you get some great views of the lake — magnificent!
Everyone that works here is friendly. Based on the reviews that I’ve seen, I think people tend to forget that this is first and foremost a coffee bar during the day and a wine bar during the night — food really isn’t «the» focus here folks. When I need a good cup of coffee or a glass of wine, and a good atmosphere to boot, I don’t ever think of going anywhere else, period. The only downside is that parking can be a little tricky sometimes, but that’s Uptown.

The first time I meant to go here I actually looked in the windows and kept walking because the décor made me feel like it wasn’t a ‘work on your laptop’ kind of place. I finally went in a couple days later because I live very close and from other reviews mentioning their fast internet, I figured there had to be other people on their laptops!
My first experience was later at night, after 7pm, on a weeknight. It was pretty empty and the lone guy manning the restaurant was nice and courteous, not intrusive or annoyed by my presence. I had the peanut butter and jelly shake and it was amazing! I’ve been trying to find a place in MN to compete with the PB&J shakes from Emerald City Smoothies out west; this place is it! I also had a very large cookie which the server offered to warm up (nice touch!).
I just went back again and tried their Sicilian flatbread pizza. It was really quite good; nice and crispy with the perfect amount of sauce and toppings and a decent portion (I wasn’t stuffed but I was satisfied). I would order it again but only during happy hour; it was good but not $ 11 good. One thing I’ll mention is their happy hour menu says $ 6 flatbread pizzas (why I decided to try them out) but when the bill came I found out that pizzas over $ 10 (Sicilian was one of those) only get $ 1 off. The server was very nice and gave me the $ 6 price because they don’t list the caveat on their happy hour menu.
I’m still on the fence about frequenting this place. It really is a nice place but I feel so out of place working on my laptop. It has the feel of an intimate, upscale restaurant and yet the booths have convenient, above the table outlets. I never see it really busy where I’m taking up space and I see others on their laptops, but it just feels like a weird mix of classy cocktail restaurant and wifi coffee shop.

I like the Eden Prairie location much better. I’ve stopped here 3 times in the morning for large dark roasts and the flavor just isn’t quite right.
I like the EP location most for how open it is and yet very private. They tried to do that with this location, at least replicate their other store, and its just not quite the same.
I’ll still support them, but its not the only coffee shop I’ll go to.

Let me start by saying how much I REALLY want is place to be good. I’ve now gone here THREE times, hoping it will improve.
Atmosphere: Cozy, modern café. Nice appointments and booths. Great lighting, etc
Service: my first two visits the servers –while always super friendly-​seemed confused and one admitted she didn’t know the menu! By the third though, they seemed to have sorted it out a bit, and I totally give space for start-​up syndrome (though, as someone who worked at an opening restaurant in it’s first 6 months of operation, that’s actually when service should be amazing… first impressions and all…)
Food: let’s get to the real point here: the food is not good. Overpriced and sad. Coffee was fine. They have a ton of wine, and it is delicious, but I think it’s overpriced and their happy hour is basically non-​existent, which is sad, bc given the location the spot could be overflowing. But the food! Alas! Flatbreads that were soggy, and I even tried the Brie/​ham/​croissant sandwich and I literally wondered if I had offended someone it was so sad.
As someone else mentioned, great wifi access, decent coffee, killer location. Please get it together JJ’s-we want you to succeed!

Okay, came back for lunch today and totally different experience! [cue Mario Bros. coin chime for +1 star]
Before I go into food, I should mention, the wifi remained blazingly fast at 9MB (the only reason I came back).
The staff was awesomely attentive. Way more seasoned, friendly and knowledgeable than my last visit. That in itself doesn’t say much since last time was a bit of a dismal failure but this time, against a normal standard you’d expect, I’d say I really liked the service. Really nice server.
Food. Had a simple bread and olive oil. Delish. $ 5. My friend had a turkey croissant and first off, it *looked* much better than the generic food of the last breakfast visit to JJs and (he says) it tasted good! $ 8 range?
I can’t speak on the dinner service/​wine but for lunch I’d give it 4-​stars. For breakfast… the jury is still out on that one. :)

Great wine list! They also have a great flight proseco! Yum
And it couldn’t have a better view of lake Calhoun!

I think the challenge for JJ’s will be coming from what sounds like a very successful (and very Unilocaler-​approved!) Eden Prairie location and realizing that the model isn’t going to translate 100%. In Uptown they have a lot of competition since this neighborhood is home to plenty of other locally owned all-​day cafes.
To get down to brass tacks, I see a lot of potential in the location, the space and the day-​to-​night concept. And I’m really glad it’s a family-​owned business in here instead of a Starbucks. However, as it is now, I have a hard time seeing JJ’s compete with places like Lucia’s, Barbette, etc. who are serving chef-​driven food in a similar price range (for lunch and small plates, at least) or coffee shops like Dogwood or Rustica nearby. Even though I think there are some changes to be made out of the gate at JJ’s, I’m still rooting for these guys and hope they find their footing soon.
ATMOSPHERE + SERVICE: I’m a fan. The patio is awesome, obviously. It overlooks Calhoun and it was wonderfully shady on this hot morning and the patio chairs don’t leave marks on bare legs (win!). The interior is suburbany, but it’s nicely done. The service was maybe a little green, but welcoming.
COFFEE: My cold press was decent. It wasn’t up to third-​wave standards of Dogwood/​BullRun/​Blue Ox/​Urban Bean, but it was better than Dunn Brothers down the street. Espresso drinks are the real test though, so I’ll have to update if I have a latte.
DRINKS: The adult drink list looks promising with wine as the focus, plus micheladas (I love me some micheladas) and sake cocktails. The bottled beer list has some standouts, but includes nothing local except Premium. They feature local things on the rotating taps. I read on Heavy Table that they are on the Surly waiting list. It’s pretty awesome that they offer menu assists for wine and beer pairings. I love that feature at Surdyk’s Flights and I love it here too.
MENU: This is where I see the biggest room for improvement. I actually decided not to stay for lunch after looking at the menu. It features standard flatbreads, starters, cheese plates and salads at higher price points than I expected. I was intrigued to see a whole menu of veggie burgers (hey, it’s kinda unique and I thought they’d be housemade). Then noticed that they are all listed as gardenburgers or spicy chipotle black bean burgers with different toppings, which gives me the impression that they are not homemade. Step it up a little, make your own veggie burgers and then I’ll gladly pay $ 10.50 for them and update this review.