Sitting near the intersection of Campbell and Preston with a mission statement that touts its exploration to “solve the 3 p.m. slump,” the option to add caffeine to most drinks by way of pre-workout (151-301 grams) or energy shots (61-122 grams) doesn’t hurt.
We swung by for lunch (and to be entirely transparent, again later on for dinner). Here are some of the highlights.
Between lunch and dinner, we tried the Blueberry Ginger Boost, a Beach Protein Frappe and a regular, plain latte to drink. The Blueberry Ginger Boost is an iced blueberry green tea with lemon slices, dried blueberries and a shot of vitamin C (which you can opt to add to most drinks). This drink was excellent; refreshing and not too sweet. Caffeine being crucial to our level of functioning, we added an energy shot to ours for 99 cents without a single regret.
The flavor of the Beach Protein Frappe echoed that of banana Laffy Taffy, and while this take may be divisive, we don’t mean that as an insult. It was OK, but more importantly, we think it’s great that a place like this has a quick protein drink available in a pinch.
The latte was solid enough that if you told us it was from a local coffee shop, we may have believed it.
Savory hash brown bites with herb ranch and pretzel bites with a side of spicy queso.
Danielle Beller
The pretzel bites were dense and chewy with little bits of coarse salt sprinkled about. They were just about what you’d expect fast-food pretzel bites to be: maybe a little chewier than ideal, but they weren’t bad. The spicy queso, sadly, wasn’t our favorite, and while we’d recommend the hot mustard over it, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try it.
As far as desserts go, we tried the sea salt chocolate chip cookie and all three flavors of McPops, which are light, fluffy doughnut holes filled with chocolate hazelnut spread, cookie butter or apple pie filling before being rolled or tossed in powdered sugar (or, in the case of the apple cinnamon flavor, cinnamon sugar).
All three varieties were good, but the Cookie Butter is our favorite, both airy and dense in the best way. And although we enjoyed them, the filling inside of the apple cinnamon ones had the faintest hint of artificiality (think green apple Jolly Rancher).
A sprinkling of sea salt has the power to do any chocolate chip cookie some good, and this one’s no exception. It was chewy in the middle, a little crunchy on the outside and tasted close to homemade, which, for a fast-food place, is an achievement.
One of CosMc's slogans is “have a nice sip,” and honestly, we did. Nothing we tried was particularly bad and most of it was quite good (looking at you, Cookie Butter McPops). With so many drink and snack options, this is a pretty sassy rebuttal to Sonic’s happy hour.
Overall, our visit was enjoyable. We say give it a try, although we wouldn’t blame you if you waited for the buzz to die down just a little ... waiting for more than an hour when we went back for dinner might’ve been a little much, but they didn't ask us to be that extra.
CosMc's. 6033 Campbell Road. Open 6 a.m. - 9 p.m. daily.
