The second leg of the trip was in Portland, Oregon. The city is still scarred from a year of political violence, and there was a sense of uncertainty of when or if some kind of normal will return, and what it will look like. But the attractions of the Rose City are still clear.
Continue readingCategory: coffee shops & reviews
Matty’s Pacific Northwest Coffee Adventures: Part One
Just back from a family vacation in the Pacific Northwest. Of course I drank a lot of coffee. As when I did my coffee tour of Denver three years ago, I ordered a traditional macchiato at each stop rather than my usual quad shot version. This kept my body in check on those days when I had three or four coffees. So let’s get to it!
First Stop: Seattle
Continue readingPower Rankings: August 9
One man’s opinion. Ask me tomorrow and I’m likely to tell you something completely different.
Roasters
1. Onyx
2. Heart
3. Verve
4. Sweet Bloom
5. Counter Culture
DMV Cafés
1. Café Unido
2. The Coffee Bar (Shaw)
3. Baked & Wired
4. Dua Coffee DC
5. Northside Social (Arlington)
HM (alphabetically): Kaldi Social House (Silver Spring), Lost Sock, Maketto, Swings (Alexandria), Takoma Bev Co, Vigilante (Hyattsville)
back in business!
It’s been more than 15 months since the pandemic hit and for those of us who work in DC’s Foggy Bottom area one of many things we’ve lost is Sami’s Coffee Kiosk. The space at the corner of 22nd & Virginia which used to be occupied by Sami’s cart has been empty, with no sign of a return.
The corner’s still empty, but a few weeks ago Sami resurfaced on the twitters:
I stopped in this morning to see him, and it was a delight. Friendly as ever, we had time to catch up without the usual line on the sidewalk, and the coffee was as great as always. Sami has a sunny alcove with a lot of windows, more room than he had in his cart, and has basically shifted his gear out of the cart and onto a few countertops. He told me that business has been good, and at this point he thinks he’ll be staying at Sol so long as that continues.
So DC peeps, stop by and see Sami, and support a local businessman whose livelihood has been hit hard by the pandemic. You’ll be glad you did.
mini review: Vermont Artisan Coffee & Tea Co.
If you’re headed to Stowe, Vermont, about halfway there from the highway, after you’ve passed Ben & Jerry’s and then this guy…..
….. you’ll see what at first glance looks to be a big red barn. You’re going to want to stop there, because it’s the home of one of the best specialty coffee places you’ll find just about anywhere.
Welcome to Vermont Artisan Coffee & Tea, home to a large roastery, coffee school, and coffee and tea bar.
Continue readingmini review: Café Unido
You may have read in the news of President Joe Biden’s visit on Cinco de Mayo to Las Gemelas, a taqueria in Washington, DC’s La Cosecha market. It’s too bad he didn’t go to the other end of La Cosecha, where he would have found one of DC’s finest coffee purveyors.
La Cosecha is a beautiful, high-end marketplace in the Union Market district, featuring merchants selling food, wine, apparel and household goods, all to showcase the diaspora of Latin American cultures. There you’ll find Café Unido, a stand in the market selling Panamanian coffees, with airy indoor and outdoor seating areas.
Continue readingmini review: Dua Coffee DC
Dua Coffee DC had been getting a lot of attention, including a spot in the most recent update of the Eater guide to best DC coffee shops and mention in the recently expanded Sprudge guide to Washington, DC. Loyal customers sing its praises regularly on DC social media sites. And I thought it would be interesting to try a shop centered around the coffee of Indonesia, which other than kopi luwak often gets overlooked in favor of beans grown in Africa and Central and South America.
La Regina
Great local news piece on La Casa del Caffe, home of the world’s finest cup of coffee. Anna is such a treasure. Watching this should help you understand why I always go out of my way to visit any time I’m near New York city.
coffee! donuts! coffee *and* donuts!!!
It should be pretty obvious that I love good coffee. I also love donuts. I’m certainly not the only one to feel this way, and definitely not the only one to love them together. Sweets balancing out a great cup of coffee is always a treat, and for whatever reason the soft and chewy mix of yeasty dough and a million tons of sugar makes for the best complement.
I thought about this when I found myself standing in a block-long line the other morning for 45 minutes in 350 F weather. I was there to buy donuts.
a welcome reprieve, for now
I was disappointed last fall to learn that DC area gelato and espresso chain Dolcezza was about to shutter almost all its retail outlets, particularly the one I frequented in Bethesda, MD. You can imagine my delight while searching for a post-lunch jolt today to find the Bethesda location remains open. Makes sense in our COVID times, given the shop’s small footprint and few tables should favor a takeout trade.
It seems the shop remains open until an unspecified end of the holiday season. Here’s hoping they stay around for Presidents Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day…… well, you get my drift.