I like a good pun and "Hardback Coffee Cafe"—the "coffee" part hardly readable in the logo—certainly must have caused quite the kneeslapping in some marketer's office.

Located inside "select" Hastings stores, I suppose these are part of the Texas chain's plans of taking on unholy alliances a la Barnes & Noble/Starbucks. Now, I don't buy much physical media anymore—DVDs are so 2010—but on the rare occasion I do, I like Hastings. They have a large selection of semi-obscure stuff, and seem to be the only choice for Fulci films in this town.

But that's neither here nor there.

Hardback Cafe isn't too shabby, though you'd be hard pressed to find anything outstanding about it. The barristas did a good enough job with our Americano and latte, both which were drinkable and above Starbucks quality.

I don't think the actual beans used will receive any awards. Not that they were bad, just kind of… dull? Not much depth at any rate.

But hey, if you want to hawk some DVDs off for cash, then Hardback Cafe is a decent enough place to kill some time.