The Best Coffee Shops in the United States

A greenhouse-style coffee station sits at the center of an otherwise industrial room, tucked behind heavy wooden doors in a Chinatown strip mall. This Korean coffee shop pulls espresso and pour overs alongside signature drinks and desserts so meticulously arranged they feel almost too pretty to eat. Regulars navigate the nondescript parking lot without a second thought. A second location sits in Henderson.

This is an airport coffee counter in PDX that happens to be run by an independent Portland roaster, which means La Marzocco machines and a sleek, minimalist setup instead of the usual chain with a rotating cast of regrets. The seasonal lattes lean toward pairings like pear and bergamot, a lot of thought for someone clutching a boarding pass. It made The Infatuation's list of Portland's 25 best coffee shops, airport and all.

A coffee shop painted entirely black, because of course it is, parked next to a music venue in case the aesthetic wasn't clear enough. The drinks go the other direction: colorful, Southeast Asian-inspired lattes built around pandan, black sesame, and ube soft serve, which makes the whole thing a cheerful contradiction. Worth arriving in the morning before the night crowd reclaims the block.

Guilder is a roastery-run coffee shop tucked inside Powell's City of Books, which means your latte comes with a view of other people's reading lists. The drip gets proper respect here, though the seasonal drinks, like a cardamom rose cold brew under floral foam, are the ones to ask about. There's toast and even cocktails, and the clientele is mostly people holding one book and eyeing three more.

Heart Roasters espresso anchors the coffee program at this compact Inman Park shop, which spent years as a cart before finally settling into a brick-and-mortar on Elizabeth Street. Colette Bread pastries show up on weekdays, while weekend pop-ups with local bakers keep the regulars guessing. The after-hours events have made it something of a neighborhood living room for people who like their coffee shop to do a little more than just open at seven.

Nine feet of coffee shop is apparently all you need. Headquarters is a tiny, eclectic cafe on Charlotte Avenue pulling espresso drinks from local roaster Osa, with a sorghum and cinnamon latte that earns its place on the chalkboard. Baked goods rotate in from several Nashville bakeries. It sits directly across from the Richland Park Farmers Market, which makes Saturday mornings feel suspiciously well planned.

Heart is a Scandinavian-minimalist coffee shop on Burnside, and it's one of the places that helped put Portland on the third-wave map. The espresso leans light-roast, the pour-overs come with tasting notes like honeysuckle and cantaloupe, and there's no wifi, so nobody is camped out with a laptop and a single cortado. You drink the coffee, you look at the clean lines, and you leave. The Infatuation lists it among Portland's best coffee shops.

This is a La Jolla coffee shop that has dressed itself as an Italian villa, complete with trellised vines over a little alley and a table carved from a four-inch-thick door. The lattes arrive topped with a real flower bud, and prices run a few dollars above the usual, which is the cost of the scenery. Dog-walkers gossip outside while readers from the nearby bookstore claim the quieter nooks.

A rosemary-honey cortado tells you everything about what kind of coffee shop this is. Jadu is a Jamaica Plain cafe pulling Counter Culture espresso alongside masala chai sourced from Boston's own Madhrasi Chai, with seasonal drinks that lean into unexpected flavor combinations. Pastries come from a nearby nut-free bakery, and there's a breakfast and lunch menu to keep you longer than you planned.

Jaunt is a roast-to-order coffee shop tucked into an industrial park in Miramar, which is not where you'd expect to find an ube latte, but here we are. The drinks run from standard espresso to panela and lemon drop matcha experiments, and the empanadas make lunch a legitimate plan. A pay-it-forward board lets you buy a coffee or a meal for a stranger who's short on cash.

A coffee shop and pie counter in a genuine ghost town, Java Junction is the unofficial heartbeat of Madrid, the scrappy artist village strung along the Turquoise Trail twenty minutes from Santa Fe. The beans are roasted nearby and brewed in house, and the homemade pies rotate daily. An adjoining shop and a bed-and-breakfast mean you can arrive for an iced coffee and, through some series of small decisions, still be there tomorrow morning.

Jet Black is a vegan coffee shop in Gateway, named after a Jawbreaker song, which tells you roughly what's on the stereo. They roast their own beans, default to two shots of espresso, and stock enough plant milks that hemp gets a seat. The front deck is spacious, the breakfast sandwich is an English muffin with a sausage patty and Mama Lil's peppers, and nobody seems to be performing anything.

An Ethiopian coffee shop in Midtown, Kefita takes the origin story of coffee seriously. You can go the purist route with a pour-over or drip, or lean into house lattes built around honey cardamom or Ethiopian spice syrups. The sambusas and vegan monkey bread are worth the detour from your usual coffee-and-laptop routine. Once a month the team holds a traditional coffee ceremony, which turns a Tuesday into something worth rearranging.

La Perlita is an Overlook coffee shop that treats the latte as a chance to bring in rosewater, cardamom, dulce de leche, and smoky chile pasilla. There's enough room to spread a laptop out, though the menu makes a strong case for abandoning your inbox. The mocha comes with chocolate and warm spices, and a concha under rainbow sprinkles sits next to it. The Infatuation put it on a list of Portland's best coffee shops.

La Ventana is a minimalist coffee shop in Eastern Market, pouring Intelligentsia espresso from a U-shaped bar built for long chats with the barista. Toddlers get elevated bleacher seating to climb around on, while laptop people claim the two-top tables and pretend not to notice. Pastries and breakfast burritos cover the snacking, and evenings often bring local artists or music, so the place keeps going after the caffeine does.

Lestat's On Park is a 24-hour coffee shop in University Heights, named for the Anne Rice vampire novels, which explains the fake chandeliers, the peeling wallpaper, and the giant corner couch that seems to have outlasted several decades of hairstyles. There's no air conditioning and the decor never left the '90s. The baristas run grumpy but know their espresso, and the sandwiches are there for 3 a.m. emergencies.

This is a coffeehouse on El Cajon Boulevard that treats the couch as a shared resource, and you may end up splitting one with a stranger from another generation. SDSU students fill the hightops with open textbooks and gossip, and a wall of broken clocks has quietly given up on telling anyone when to leave. It's open until 11pm every night, with omelettes and paninis on the menu and a cool-weather patio.

Longplay is a listening-room coffee shop, which means you hand over your laptop ambitions at the door and get a rule sheet in return. The pitch is vinyl on a serious sound system, cold brew, and drinks that dress up like cocktails, think yuzu highball and a fluffy black sesame mochi. Hours are short, weekends only, and posted on Instagram, so check before you go and plan to arrive before last call.

Marta is a neighborhood coffee shop planted where University Heights, Normal Heights, and North Park meet, which means it never has to pick a side. The mexican mocha latte arrives in a handmade clay mug, and the menu runs to Mexican-American fusion, like salmon al pastor on blue corn sourdough. Laptop people and book people share the room, and the macha salsa is the sort of thing you'll want to smuggle home in your tote bag.

A Colombian family operation with a five-acre farm at its roots, Matta lands in Portland's Northwest District as a coffee shop that keeps one foot planted in Bogotá. Espresso drinks share the menu with cocktails and arepas, which is a tidy way to cover breakfast through happy hour. Warm woods and serious plant energy make it the kind of spot where laptops outnumber newspapers, which tells you all you need to know about the afternoon crowd.

A coffee truck parked at the Broadway News food truck park, MILA Coffee pulls its shots from Tweed beans out of Dallas and lets you customize with caramel or Mexican vanilla. The real draw is geography: it sits right next to Carnitas Don Raúl, so cyclists and regulars tend to linger on the benches outside long after the coffee's gone. Bring a jacket if the sky looks uncertain; cover is minimal.

The emerald-painted coffee shop on Lake Street does lattes and cappuccinos with no drama, then quietly offers a second menu of herbal, almost alchemical drinks, like a beet-and-rose-water brew called the Jitterbug Perfume that sounds made up until you order it. The whole place is Celiac-friendly, which is either a bonus or the whole reason you're here.

Milstead and Co. is a coffee shop on the ground floor of a new building down the hill from the Fremont Troll, which makes it the newer, shinier end of the neighborhood. The beans rotate through serious roasters like Heart, Kuma, and Sweet Bloom, so a quick Americano to-go gets the same care as a V60 pourover. Temple Pastries are in the case, a rarity around town. Come in a hoodie, leave with a very good cup.

Mnemonic is a coffee shop whose colorful accent walls and grid-patterned tables make it look like the inside of a Mondrian painting. There are four pour overs on at any time, plus seasonal drinks like a grapefruit and cold brew number that tastes like an Arnold Palmer with a pulse. The few tables inside come with a one hour limit, so bring a book instead of a deadline. Balboa Park is close enough for a to-go cup and a stroll.

Muri is a North Park coffee shop where the Kurdish coffee arrives unfiltered, with fine grounds settled at the bottom like a small, caffeinated riverbed. The baristas will warn you before you order it, and they'll swap in a cappuccino if the hazelnut version isn't your thing. Baked treats like pistachio cheesecake share the counter, and the shaded patio fills with laptop people who have turned a Tuesday into an office.

Never Coffee is a Belmont cafe and roastery where the lattes read like a dare: one comes with hops and dulce de leche, another with star anise and black licorice, and both somehow behave in the cup. The room is all cutout shapes and a bright green tiled floor, and the picnic tables out front go fast whenever Portland remembers the sun exists. Order at the counter, stay as long as the laptop battery allows.

Nossa Familia is a coffee shop in Ladd's Addition that buys its beans straight from family farms in Brazil, which explains the subscription club and the loyal following. The room is bright, the espresso runs smooth and chocolatey, and the menu skips the flashy drinks, with one exception. The Bee Sting latte comes with local honey, cardamom, and a little cayenne, so it's the only thing here that fights back.

A Kyoto-born coffee roaster with a downtown Boston outpost, Ogawa treats the morning latte as a quiet art project, right down to the foam. It's a coffee shop in the composed, Japanese sense: calm, precise, and a little more interesting than you expected. The house blend skews rich and fruity, the hojicha latte earthy and caramel-edged, and seasonal drinks like a smoked maple latte suggest the menu takes itself just seriously enough.