When in Venice, if you happen to be wandering around the peggy Guggenheim museum, be sure to pop into Bar Gino. It is the perfect coffee bar... opens at 7:00AM so you can read your Trib, have some wonderful tramezzino and chiccetti closer to noon. The espresso made me a convert from hot tea and the capuccino, standing up at the Bar, made me a Venetian.IMHO, there is no better coffee bar in the world.

obscure2k - I believe you. Italian cities and smaller towns are home to the BEST espresso bars and cafes. What else can you expect from the creators of espresso?

globalguy - thanks for the DFW tip...I'll look for one of those locations on my next trip there.

[This message has been edited by Pietro (edited Feb 17, 2004).]

Is Lavazza considered crap? I like the espresso grind.

Lavazza is not great IMO, but you can find much worse. I think Illy is a better brand of "canned" (i.e., not freshly roasted by a local coffee rooaster) beans. Illy is known as an innovative Italian coffee company wiith a real focus on quality control and roasting.

If you can't get a good mediium-roast blend (or other espresso blend) fresh from a local roaster, I would go with Illy.

FWIW, Illy produces some of the best espresso cups too.

www.illy.com

[This message has been edited by Pietro (edited Feb 22, 2004).]

favorite coffee houses in Rome, Italy

moneywiese caffè (coffee) accounts for about one fourth of a daily turnover in a roman bar.

(no name Bar) in San Lorenzo, Largo degli Osci 20 (Monday-Saturday, 05:00-23:00)
'Un caffè', 'due capuccini e un cornetto', 'un caffèun pocco macchiato', 'un caffé correto': 9AM in the small local Bar in San Lorenzo (a 'workers' quarter of Rome), Eugenio runs everything with a smile at his Bar. As in every Bar, you pay first the cashier, give the 'bon' (with a small tip) toe tha bar-keeper, watch the caffé-machine boiling, drink the coffè in one pull standing (sitting costs more), chatting. Enjoy the local workers athmosphere, great and strong caffè.

Antico caffè Greco, Via Condotti 86, 08:00-22:00 (very near the base of the spanish stairs.
Opened in 1760 by the levantine Nicola Della Maddalena, this 'noble' coffe house (red velvet polstery) did already host Wagner, Mendelssohn, Stendhal, Liszt, Casanova. Goethe did write here (under the 'aka' of Phillipp Möller) scenes of ?Iphigenie in Tauris; Gog ol wrote parts of 'dead souls'. The calabresian painter Stelario is still a daily guest and paints often live here in a corner, for 25 years already.

Tazza d'oro, Via degli Orfani, 07:00-20:00 (near the Pantheon)
the smell of fresh roasted coffee-beans will not let you just pass by. Famous for 'Granita di caffè con panna' (don't think/count calories), the cooffee been mix is from Columbia, Costa Rica, few from Jemen (those are very strong and may be a little bit critical for some stomacs).

near by the Tazza d'Oro is also Gran Caffè La caffeteria, Piazza di Pietra 65, 07:00-21:00.
Meeting place for the stock-exchange people mixing with politicians

The Hill neighborhood in St. Louis has a pretty good coffee roaster and espresso bar. Shaw's Coffee Ltd. is next to a pretty good Italian grocery (Viviano's) and is housed in what looks like a former bank building. You can stand at a bar and enjoy your espresso or sit at a table in the main seating area. There's even a private vault "room" with a table where you can sit and while away some time.

The espresso here is OK but nothing spectacular IMO. The drip coffee (I tried a Tanzania, medium roast) was excellent the last time I visited. The people here are very nice and welcoming too.

Shaw's Coffee Ltd.
5147 Shaw Ave.
St. Louis, Mo.
314-771-6920
http://www.shawscoffee.com/

from the Portland Mercury Paper:

"Urban Grind

2214 NE Oregon, 546-0649

This is probably the best coffeehouse you haven't heard ofÉ yet. They roast their own beans"

Illy is "canned" in that it comes in a great little can, however their can is filled with nitrogen to displace the air which keeps the desirable flavor volitiles in the coffee itself (for up to two years, according to illy). Vacuum packaging, think Folgers, sucks these flavor components out of the coffee along with the air which is why you get that great coffee aroma when you open a vacuum-packed can. Whoosh. Too bad it won't be in your cup.

Whatever you do, don't buy fresh-roasted beans and try to preserve their flavor in the freezer.

And yes, illy does have magnificent cups! Try eBay for the older illy signed collections. Pricey, but worth it every time you use one. I prefer the cappuccino size, and fill it with a double illy espresso, or some days just add hot water for cafe Americano.

We sell chocolate, and illy is the only non-chocolate product we carry. 100% Arabica beans which are naturally lower in caffeine and higher in flavor. Francesco was a chemist, and to save you guessing, so is Mr. lilli (who has an unfortunate addiction to Charbux, but he's enrolled in a great 12-step program....

Ahhhh.... Cafe du Monde, coffee and beignets. That is a favorite place of mine :)

Cafe Fisher in Aschaffenburg, Germany.

I like Cafe DuMonde in NOLA also, but only because of the beignets.

Z

Grey Dog Cafe is nice on Carmine St. in Manhattan. Coffee's decent, but I mostly like it for the environment. Drip is also pretty good. I normally go to *bucks. Not because it's better (which it's not), but because it's more convenient and consistant (in terms of coffee and environment). If you go for Americano instead of the brewed stuff, it's not so bad.

Gosh, no one's mentioned London's Caffe Nero, a daily ritual when I'm there.
Also agree with the comments on Illy, we buy it at the market when we're renting in France, an excellent coffee for the home kitchen.

Intermezzo, in the Tyneside Cinema building in Newcastle upon Tyne, U.K.

Great coffee (Breda), great pannini's, great salads, great music, great staff and great newspapers (including European dailies.)

Also, add me to the Illy-lovers list.

P.J.'s Coffee in New Orleans (and elsewhere??)
 

Best iced coffee anywhere - I am addicted....truly sad!! (They "cold-brew")

When in Milwaukee, I always make a trip to Alterra http://www.alterracoffee.com. Great coffee, and the N. Prospect cafe is fun to hang out in, with tasty baked goods; I haven't been to the lakefront location yet but have heard it's very nice.