Coffee culture in the US has overwhelmingly been associated with Seattle and Starbucks. It’s also subject to the latest trends.
I’ve lived through the cappuccino craze of the ’90s, and then through the frappuccino fanaticism in the early 2000s. We seem to have just crested the cold brew hype and are headed into single-origin and small brew territory.
Clearly, the coffee hype in the US isn’t going to die down any time soon.
We drink cold brew, we drink americanos—we drink whatever the hell gives us the energy to get through another workday.
But there is one interesting development. Over the last decade, the coffee locus has started to spread away from the Pacific Northwest. Though Seattle and Portland are renowned for their cozy little cafes, East Coast coffee capitals are starting to take the limelight.
Let’s go on a coffee tour of the best hotspots around the East Coast. (No Dunkins’ allowed—sorry.)
The Big Apple
You can find great coffee across the five boroughs. Though the average New Yorker tends to get their coffee from a bodega (and usually light’n’sweet), locals also have access to a handful of world-class cafes.
In terms of sheer numbers, New York City has the highest number of coffee shops per block in the US—even beating out Seattle.
But there’s something a little different about coffee in the Big Apple: a blend of hipster mindset and venture capital. It’s not just a place where locals love their local coffee shop. It’s also a place where daring new commercial coffee projects take flight.
Get a drink here:
Bean Town
It’s hard to find a bad brew in Bean Town. Similar to New York City, coffee shops dot every neighborhood in Boston. Most are mom-and-pop establishments—something that seems to hold true throughout the East Coast coffee capitals listed here.
In Boston, you’ll notice the highest-rated coffee shops are located around Cambridge where universities are located. There are a few really interesting projects going on in this area. Barismo 364 blew my mind with its coffee taps. That’s right—coffee on draft.
Get a drink here:
Steel City
Fragrant coffee, blazing steel. What’s not to love? Pittsburgh might be one of the least likely candidates to pop into someone’s mind when they imagine a great cup of Joe.
However, there are dozens of quality cafes dotting the city’s varied neighborhoods. In fact, WalletHub named Pittsburgh as No. 10 on their list of US’s Best Coffee Cities.
Many of these coffee shops have a hybrid approach to business. At night, they shift to focus on wine sales. (Love it.) This was one way for certain cafes to survive the pandemic but has since become a hit in popular neighborhoods like the Strip.
Drink here:
PVD
Providence, Rhode Island is one of the nation’s smallest capitals nestled inside the borders of its smallest state. What spells cozy coffee shop culture better than a charming, old capital? Given its size, locals take a lot of pride in their city’s culture—and that’s true for coffee, as well.
In fact, Providence’s top coffee shops have tried to focus in on the classic days of café culture. Think: fewer laptops and Wi-Fi routers, more hardcover books and hardboiled discussions. It’s a city that looks to be reaching back to restore a long-lost, coffee-centric ethos.
Drink here:
DC
The greater the hustle, the greater the need for coffee. In the US’s capital city, coffee shops aren’t solely responsible for providing for locals. They’re also serving coffee to some of the world’s most powerful leaders.
So it’s not just a city-wide or national affair—coffee in DC needs to hold up to global standards. That means you can find some of the best coffee shops in the country right on Capitol Hill.
Over the last few years, multiple publications have started to focus on the resurgence of coffee culture in Washington DC. At the top of the article, I mentioned that the US is starting to focus on micro-roasting and single-origin coffee—which seems to be high on the priority list for DC’s top cafes.
Drink here:
- Yerevan (this Armenian spot doesn’t have a website; learn more here)
- Peregrine Espresso