Dinosaur Coffee, Silver Lake, Los Angeles
Dinosaur Coffee reminds me of what I enjoyed most about the cafes that prompted me to start this blog when I was living in Korea — the shop radiates idiosyncratic personality. Quirky creative touches, from art to plants to decorative dino merch, can be found all around the interior, which was designed by the same...
Voyager Espresso, Financial District, NYC
Hidden in a nondescript tunnel attached to the Fulton St. subway station, Voyager is a refreshing change from the sort of samey visual aesthetic a lot of specialty cafes have embraced. With a name and logo referencing the Voyager space probe (which just celebrated its 40th anniversary), the vibe is decidedly otherworldly. A circular...
Sweet Bloom Coffee Roasters, Lakewood, Colorado
Sweet Bloom Coffee Roasters is a name I’ve seen being served at great cafes from New York to Los Angeles over the past couple years, so when I visited Denver I had to pay a visit to their cafe & roasting facility. Sweet Bloom was founded in 2013 by Andy Sprenger, a Brewer’s Cup champ...
Huckleberry Roasters – Denver, CO
Huckleberry Roasters is one of several local roasters making a name for Denver’s growing coffee scene. Starting out of a garage in 2011, they now have a retail cafe and roasting space, along with a new brand called Port Side in the RiNo arts district serving their coffee with breakfast sandwiches, avocado toast, and light...
Verve Coffee – Downtown Los Angeles
Verve is a well regarded roastery and cafe out of Santa Cruz, CA. In the past couple years they’ve expanded with a handful of shops in Los Angeles and even an outpost in Tokyo. Their first Los Angeles location debuted at the Ace Hotel in Downtown, and it’s a really striking space. Mirrors give the...
Peregrine Espresso, Washington D.C.
You always hear about holiday travel being a disaster, but, at least until this winter, I’d always been lucky. However, after delays, American Airlines canceling one of my tickets in error right before final boarding, and other travel chaos, I found myself spending Christmas eve in Washington, D.C. So, naturally, I found the closest cafe...
Blacktop Coffee, Los Angeles
There’s a relatively fresh addition to Los Angeles’ rapidly blooming downtown coffee repertoire, located on a block that aptly showcases the new downtown LA. The new shop is called Blacktop Coffee, but its owner’s name isn’t new to anyone following specialty coffee – Tyler J. Wells was one of the founders of Handsome Coffee (now...
Starbucks for Spooks
I enjoyed this peek inside the CIA’s coffee culture. Not surprising, but a glimpse inside a hidden and curious world. I wonder if there’s a classified counter-culture of coffee geeks with Aeropresses and grinders in there? “Coffee culture is just huge in the military, and many in the CIA come from that culture ,” said...
A Look Back: Los Angeles Coffee Culture (Part 3)
Continuing from Part 1 and Part 2 of my look back at LA’s growing Coffee Culture, it’s time to look at what has changed over time: Handsome Coffee Roasters: recently acquired by Blue Bottle and in the midst of being assimilated, so it remains to be seen what happens here! In the mean time, here’s...
Crema – Denver, Colorado
It seems like I keep hearing about how awesome Colorado is. People moving there. Others visiting and coming back with stories of craft beer flowing like water, delicious food, and gorgeous country. So when I recently had a business trip that took me to Denver, hyped was an understatement – I was looking forward to...
Four Midtown Manhattan Cafes You Should Be Visiting
I recently met up with Steve Rhinehart (the guy behind the Counter Talk blog) to explore a few cafes that have popped up this year in Midtown Manhattan, an area that used to be a coffee dead-zone. There’s still a lot of room for improvement as these cafes become more established, but things are looking...
Intelligentsia Coffee, Highline Hotel NYC
Following in the footsteps of Stumptown, which entered the New York market through their swanky cafe at the Ace Hotel, Intelligentsia has just opened their first outpost in the city nestled in the lobby of the High Line Hotel in Chelsea. The space is currently deceptively small, with just a few bars and couches in...
