Chris G’s Best Yelp Reviews: The Refinery – 5/5 Stars

The Refinery – CLOSED
$ Coffee & Tea, Cafes
413 Santa Monica Blvd
Santa Monica, CA 90401

The Refinery is a large grey cube amongst the obnoxiousness of the gaudy shops along the Promenade-adjacent Santa Monica Blvd.

Omg, you are next to the beach, have a panini, have a smoothie, have a diving fin?!

No, you don’t care that you are four blocks away from the most touristy part of Santa Monica Beach and next to the massive amount of foot traffic due to the Downtown to Santa Monica 704 Bus Stop because you are THE REFINERY.

I think of an industrial NIMBY on SimCity when I think of the word ‘refinery’ and I see the smokestacks and refining crude oil and chemicals billowing smoke to create a haze, an atmospheric change when I come inside.

Your cold brew is perfect, your foreboding roominess, lack of a crowd, and sumptuous large empty spaces are amazingly sobering. This is what drinking coffee should make me feel like, and you succeed in sucking out all of the electric atmosphere out of your surroundings. I feel like a cold industrial complex, ready to battle the waves on my surfboard.

The Refinery, ftw.

Useful:Funny:Cool: 5

7/22/2014