Favorite coffeehouses
 

What are they, and where are they located?

My favorites include:
* Espresso Vivace in Seattle, or possibly Cafe Zoka (sp?) in Seattle. I haven't tried too many other notable coffeehouses in this city, but these two must be among the tops as roasters and also just for hanging out.
* Brooadway Cafe & Roastery in Kansas City, Mo. I used to travel to KC on a semi-regular basis, and this place was always tops for espresso or cappas with the "lattte art." I spent many enjoyable mornings here gulping a beautiful espresso or two and reading the KC Star before heading out to business appointments.
* PJ's Coffee & Tea in New Orleans. Sure it's a local chain, but it's a very good one. PJ's operates the best coffeehouses in a coffee-crazy city.

So where do you find good coffee when you're traveling? And please, don't tell me you go to Starbucks! http://www.flyertalk.com/dining/ftdi...orum/smile.gif

Cafe du Monde - New Orleans

I don't drink coffee, but I get a cup here and of course some beignets (sp).

Cafe Trieste, in San Francisco's North Beach, just off Columbus on Vallejo. They have live opera arias on open mike on Saturday afternoons beginning at 3 p.m. Their on-site roaster is next door, so you can get some beans or ground beans to go.

Runner up: Cafe Puccini on Columbus. There's Curuso on the jukebox. <g>

Here at home (PDX), I go to any of the four Torrefazione outlets when I have time to kick back a bit, or Seattle's Best if it's a grab and go situation. I avoid Charbux at all costs.

[This message has been edited by essxjay (edited 07-27-2003).]

Willie -- I enjoy Cafe du Monde too...not so much for the cafe au lait (sp) but definitely for the beignets. In NOLA, you can always go somewhere like PJ's for a good coffee after 3 or 4 of those sugary treats. http://www.flyertalk.com/dining/ftdi...orum/smile.gif

essxjay -- I definitely would suggest avoiding "Charbux," but so many people think of it as the standard of all coffees. Charbux is a horrible place IMO for straight espresso or brewed coffee...so I guess that's why most people seem to go there for those flavored coffee-flavored "drinks."

Which roast would you recommend from Torrefazione? I think I have visited one of their Seattle cafes. And where is that cafe in Columbus?

I've been drinking Torrefaz's Palermo (their darkest) for well on nigh a decade now. Luv the stuff. Has a lovely topnote to it. I do it in a French Press .... Mmmmmm.

Cafe Puccini? Gosh, uh, it's not in my latest Zagat since it's just a coffee/dessert place, so no address handy. (Google it?) But it's west of City Lights bookstore, but not as far as Vallejo. It's right in that whole Italian cafe strip along Columbus.

Or were you talking about Cafe Trieste?

Puccini -- but I can look it up. Thanks for the tip.

I thought of another good cafe -- Intelligentsia in Chicago. This is another serious coffee business with a big roasting business. I have made espresso -- yes, the straight stuff -- with their Italian roast but didn't care for the ultra-dark (IMO) roast. It was a high-quality roast, though, so I just need to try their other coffee blends and "single origins."

Thanks for the tip on Intelligensia. I go to Chicago about four or five times a year and can appreciate having a great coffeehouse to hang out in.

Barney's breakfast bar, in AMS is a long time favorite. They serve coffee drinks, breakfast specials, Dutch pancakes, and great deserts. They are also licensed to sell cannabis, which can really take the edge off if you drink too much coffee. http://www.flyertalk.com/dining/ftdining_forum/wink.gif

essxjay - Intelligentsia has a north side cafe (Lakeview area?) on Broadway. Looks like a seconf cafe is opening downtown on Jackson. Click on www.intelligentsiacoffee.com for more info. I also have been to local restaurants, like the coffee bar/cafe section at Bin 36, that serve Intelligentsia espresso and other coffees.

Copied from my recent post in the FT. Midwest Dining forum...

Mother Fools Coffee House at 1101 Williamson St. in Madison Wisconsin is a funky coffeehouse in the tradition of beat poets and bohemian artists. Also an art gallery with changing monthly exhibits, including a graffiti mural on an outside wall, and a music venue attracting local to international artists, but the coffee’s the thing here. Their Mother Fools House Blend was once judged the ‘best brewed coffee in the known world’. Try the cold brewed iced coffee, and the vegan pastries!



[This message has been edited by HigherFlyer (edited 08-04-2003).]

Thanks, Pietro! Looks like I'll be in Chicago next month and I usuall stay downtown. I'll be sure to checkitout!!

If you are ever in Vancouver you must go to Caffe Artigiana (http://www.caffeartigiano.com/contact.html)

It has to be one of the best coffee places I have been to. The have excellent coffee (Intelligentsia) which I always stock up on to bring home, espresso drinks with terrific "latte art" and excellent breakfast lunch with Italian grilled sandwiches etc.

Glad to see that some people are going somewhere besides Charbucks for their caffeine fix. http://www.flyertalk.com/dining/ftdi...orum/smile.gif

I was in Kansas City recently and am happy to report that the Broadway Cafe/Roastery is better than ever. www.broadwaycafeandroastery.com

Thanks for the tip on Cafe Artigiano in Vancouver. I'm not too surprised that they import coffee from Intelligentsia in Chicago, assuming that is the same place.

New York - Starbucks at 40th and Lexington - sit in the window and the people-watching is a great way to waste time. (Or Big Cup, on 8th Avenue)

Paris - Cafe Amnesia; La Sancerre, in Montmartre.

Berlin - Cafe Mohring

Chicago - Scenes, on Clark (not sure if that's still there, though). Again, I like the people-watching in that neighborhood.

San Francisco - Cafe di Roma.

Montreal - Presse Cafe on St. Catherine's in the Village, near the metro stop.

EDIT: Scenes hasn't been around for a LONG time -

"In the winter of 1996, nestled in a string of old buildings on Clark Street near Belmont Avenue in Chicago’s Lakeview district, Scenes Cafe closed one evening, bartering away its ragtag collection of furniture and remaining books concerning theater and screen writing. Scenes, owned by two brothers, was forced to shut down due to a Starbucks Coffee House which was opening at the nearby corner in the same stretch of building. Unfortunately for the small, family-owned cafe, the landlords of the buildings had a strict non-compete clause that prevented both cafes from remaining open.1 Due to the immense earning potential combined with the rapid gentrification of the neighborhood, Scenes was left in the wake of Starbuck’s role as symbolic Phallus, simultaneously creating the Law while utilizing the law for its own success.2 The void created by the disappearance of Scenes quickly became mythologized in the minds of former patrons; now abandoned to the streets of Chicago, searching for identification which became only memory, during the times when they would have been sitting in their neighborhood cafe which no longer existed outside of psychological imagery and residual objects which used to occupy a place separate from memory alone. Like Norman Bates in Hitchcock’s Psycho, the patrons of the small cafe had been overwhelmed by the power of the Symbolic Law that had replaced the Imaginary family atmosphere of identification.3 The incestuous link of community had traumatically been fragmented by the algebraic unity of commerce."

http://www.bridgemagazine.org/culture.html

Thanks for all the great suggestions.

Here's one for Louisville: Heine Brothers Cofee, with several locations throughout the city. The Bardstown Road location I have been to seems like a nice neighborhood coffeehouse with better-than-average espresso. I didn't try the drip coffees but several single-origin varieties -- including Fair Trade organic coffees -- were readily available.

Heine is also a nice place for whole beans (roasted at their facility in Louisville) and coffee/tea accessories.

http://www.heinebroscoffee.com/