It's A Grind - Diamond Bar - TravBuddy

This is the coffee house that I prefer to go to in my humble neighborhood, in lieu of Star Beezies (my way of humanizing the corporate giant known as Starbucks).  Although this is a growing franchise (136 stores and growing), it takes the cleanliness and consistency of other well-known cafe franchises like Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf, Starbucks, and Peet's while leaving behind the safe blandness and confusing marketing alliances evident in its big brothers.  In addition, you can expect the baristas to bring your items to wherever you're sitting after you've already paid, so you know tip isn't the reason; just good ol' customer service.  

The music and ambience are both carry a blues and jazz motif.  A striking painting of Bob Marley pervades the entire room, while there are plenty of plush couches and a fireplace, eliminating the sterility and identity crisis problems.  As for their drinks, I would recommend the traditional fare (Chai Latte, Cappacino, Mocha) rather than the innovative (Bavarian Black Cherry - does that even sound appealing??) Two other notable features: 1) it has a coffee tasting session (imagine 50 different coffee dispenses all squeezed neatly into a mini-buffet line) which is great, because most of us can't made heads or tails of different types of pure, un-latted, un-frappacinoed coffee.  Me included.  2) They have monthly events like open mics and poetry readings.  Look for one of these bad boys poppin' up near you!