A good coffee shop is a piece of public infrastructure. It is a place to read for two hours, meet a friend without a reservation, or just be somewhere that is not your house. The Twin Cities has a real abundance of them, and very few of them are chains.
A local roaster that runs three of the more comfortable cafes in the metro. The Linden Hills location is the best for an afternoon, the North Loop the best for a meeting, and the Calhoun Square location is reliable for a long stay.
Read full entry →Six locations across Minneapolis with rooms that range from quiet writing nook to laptop-warehouse. The Hennepin location and the North Loop have the best mornings. Roasted in-house, friendly, reliable.
Read full entry →A Minneapolis cafe that built its reputation on bittered cocktails-without-alcohol coffee drinks. The signature Slow Mo is bitters and citrus over an espresso shot. Strong design, consistent quality across the four locations.
Read full entry →Daniel del Prado’s cafe with one of the strongest pastry programs in the metro. The morning bun is the standard order. The space is small and tends to fill, but the takeout coffee is exactly as good as a sit-down.
Read full entry →A small operation that takes Belgian liège waffles seriously and serves coffee that is genuinely good alongside. The Dinkytown location stays open late, which is more useful than it sounds.
Read full entry →A small St. Paul roaster running a comfortable Highland Park cafe. The single-origin pour-overs are the move. The space is small and full on weekend mornings, but the weekday afternoons are quietly perfect.
Read full entry →A St. Paul cafe that is also a record store, which is the right idea. The coffee is good, the vinyl rotation is real, and the room sounds better than most coffee shops because it is staffed by people who care about how rooms sound.
Read full entry →On Cathedral Hill in the Blair Arcade building since 1996. The room is high-ceilinged and full of writers actually writing. F. Scott Fitzgerald lived a few blocks away. The coffee is competent, the room is the draw.
Read full entry →A reliable downtown stop with strong espresso, pastries from local bakeries, and a clean room that fits exactly into the rhythm of a downtown morning. Good for meeting somebody between buildings.
Read full entry →A serious roaster running a bright, high-ceilinged bar on Washington with enough room to actually work. Order the batch brew or a single-origin pour-over and you get coffee dialed by people who roast it down the line. The space doubles as one of the better co-working rooms in the neighborhood.
Read full entry →The draw is the rotating multi-roaster program, so the espresso might be from a different roaster than the cold brew on any given week. Big windows, a long communal table, and a tea list that is treated as seriously as the coffee. Good for a long morning when you want variety.
Read full entry →Vietnamese coffee done with real intent, built on phin-dripped robusta and condensed milk. The cà phê sữa đá is the order, strong and sweet over ice. A second location opened in the Warehouse District, but the Linden Hills room is the one to sit in.
Read full entry →Open since 1991 and open late, which is the whole point. The dirty chai and the chocolate cake are the standing order, and the basement is full of arcade machines and the kind of regulars who have been coming for twenty years. This is where you go when everything else has closed.
Read full entry →A Black, woman-owned cafe near the river that pours fair-trade coffee through the morning and turns into a wine bar in the afternoon. The fact that it does both well is the appeal. Neighborly, unhurried, the kind of place you end up staying longer than you planned.
Read full entry →A nonprofit cafe in the old Peace Coffee space that hires and trains youth experiencing homelessness through a six-month program. The Longfellow Latte is the signature, and the coffee holds up entirely on its own merits. The mission is real and the room is genuinely good.
Read full entry →A nonprofit coffeehouse run out of an old frat house near the U, which is exactly as charming as it sounds. Craft lattes, in-house baked goods, and a worn-in living-room feel that has anchored Dinkytown for close to twenty years. Built for reading, studying, and staying.
Read full entry →A West Seventh cafe with an Irish lean, fresh organic ingredients, and a kitchen that does soups, salads, and paninis worth ordering. The room is small and warm and feels like it belongs to the neighborhood, because it does. Good for a quiet meeting that runs long.
Read full entry →A Hamline-Midway cafe, coffee bar, and bakery that recently expanded into a bigger corner space at Thomas and Hamline. Weekend brunch is the move, the in-house bakery carries the pastry case, and the room is built for lingering. A genuine neighborhood anchor on the St. Paul side.
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