Charlottesville’s cafe scene is an interesting story in the least. From the days of the opening of Mud House on the mall, I’ve always been a little disappointed. Sure, each cafe has its own appeal, but the sad truth is, despite the fact that Charlottesville gloats about its food,
we are missing a truly excellent cafe.
I admit I am a coffee/espresso snob. I make an effort to visit famous cafes in major cities. Favorites that come to mind are Stumptown Coffee Roasters of Portland, Ninth Street Espresso of New York and Caffe Artigiano of Vancouver, BC. These cafes have a particular obsession with their coffee, so much in fact that you will be surprised at how interesting a little bean can be. It’s worth ordering from Stumptown. Make sure you get a light roast; you will realize that florals and spices should be part of your thought pattern when you enjoy a cup of coffee, not just how much sugar do I need?
Anyway, I digress. Your average coffee shop in Europe trumps the likes of Charlottesville. My nostalgia for all of these places, combined with the fact I am drinking a crappy local coffee has definitely put a chip on my shoulder.
If it’s pulled, percolated, or pressed it’s part of this review.
Drip coffee doesn’t count which basically rules out everything but espresso in this town. I’m also only reviewing stand-alone Cafes, so booths and in-store counters don’t count. We rank each cafe on the quality of its espresso, the pleasantness of its baristas (including guys), its ambiance.
Everything will be ranked on a scare of 1 to 5. 1 means really, horribly, cVillain shouldn’t be talking about you, awful. 5 means you are the Angelina or Brad (depending on your likes) of the Coffee world. If a cafe has multiple locations, I choose the main one. Of course this review is completely subjective. Click Continue Reading to read about our candidates, see the map and see the final results.
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Greenberry’s (Barracks Road)
Ah, yes the franchise from Charlottesville (trust me, they do franchise) leaves much to be desired. Sure, you get a decent crowd in there, but they don’t know how to make good espresso. It’s not particularly bad, but really isn’t anything more than typical American espresso. As for ambiance, it’s too noisy and open. It feels like a Gap that they forced into a coffee role. You can find your fair share of grad students here.
Starbucks (on The Corner)
I honestly think that the Starbucks location on the corner has a really cool design. It gets nice and crowded after 10AM until pretty much late at night. If you are particularly attractive you can sit on one of the chairs at the ground floor windows and you can be ogled at. It’s full of students and gets super crowded, but at least when you go upstairs you don’t feel like you are at the McDonalds of coffee.
Cafe Cubano
Cafe Cubano leads the downtown crowd. Sure, they probably have the best espresso in town and attract the most interesting set of Charlottesville movers and shakers but they just don’t go that extra mile with what you really want out of a nice cup of Espresso. The espresso is good, don’t get me wrong, but it’s not quite world class.I’d be surprised to find gentlemen who didn’t have at least a small crush on the Baristas, despite their sass!
Ah, Mudhouse is the original Downtown mall cafe as far as I’m concerned. We used to frequent this as wee little munchkins. Today, it wins on ambiance, but the coffee is pretty blah. They do have cupcake Friday’s which is probably one of the coolest sweets displays in all of town. Unfortunately it attracts the self-righteous I’m too good for you hipster crowd at times. On the flip side, this is hands down the best place to meet singles. Its design is conducive to being in your neighbor’s space bad or good thing depending on how you look at it. Be weary of the cold brewed coffee. It must have ten times the caffeine of normal coffee.
Java Java
Java Java is a recent addition to the Charlottesville cafe scene. The owners spent a considerable amount of time on the decor of the Ivy Road location. It has a nice interior and also has Gluten-free desserts if you have an intolerance. The problem with Java Java is they give you these monster sizes and the sizes are so big relative to the shots of espresso you can’t even taste the coffee. Of course the espresso isn’t too great either, but at least it’s got good ambience and is always very clean.
It is the coffee roaster turned retail shop. The vast interior might seem intimidating at first, but this place does have potential. The people are very nice and you can actually learn what goes into coffee roasting. Buy your coffee here if you want to make a good cup at home.
C-Ville Coffee can be a great place to study when you want open space. Unless they’ve changed their supplier from 6 months ago, it needs to improve its coffee. It is particularly acidic in my opinion. Sure, you can get some pricey sandwiches and spend the day there, but it doesn’t feel like a cafe should. It does have nice art and nice furniture. Beware of kids playing in the back corner!
La Taza is Belmont’s cafe. It has an outdoor patio that is excellent during the nicer parts of the year. Coffee isn’t the focus of this place, but they don’t do a bad job either. This place is more about food, so it narrowly slides in, but I think it is above average.
Popularity: 6% [?]
Tagged as: Cafe, Charlottesville, Coffee, Gripes, Restaurants, Reviews
“Be weary of the “cold brewed†coffee.”
English major?
One thing I would add to the criteria - do they all have wi-fi? I don’t go to Starbucks because I don’t like their coffee or that I have to pay to use their wireless.
All of them have Free WiFi except for Starbucks.
Yes, but the WiFi at Cville Coffee rarely works.
I have to disagree with your ranking on espresso quality. I think Shenandoah Joe’s blows the rest of those fellows out of the water… including Cafe Cubano (who I would put in second place).
Cafe Cubano can turn out a really nice espresso… but it depends heavily on who you get making it. Their beans are good quality, but nothing that would make me jump up and down.
IMHO, Shenandoah Joe’s leads the pack on quality, for both drip and espresso quality. Their people are properly trained, they keep their equipment clean, and they take the time to “do it right.”
I am not in any way affiliated with them, just a satisfied customer (yadda yadda yadda), but they’re like a breath of fresh air (coffee?) after all the mediocre, downright bad, or just plain disgusting espresso I’ve had in this town.
Josh - maybe we need to do a side-by-side. Then again, I only ranked them .5 lower than Cubano…
>>Caffe Artigiano of Vancouver, BC
Hey, I’ve been there! A few years ago on vacation my husband and I ate breakfast there every day we were in Vancouver.
I think you’d find it worth your while. Though if you want to isolate your variables, you might need to do it twice.
If you get the owners of each place to make your espresso once, you’ll compare straight bean quality, procedure, and equipment differences (the owner at Cafe Cubano consistently makes the best espresso there, and the owner at ShenJoe does as good a job as any of their baristas).
Then go at a busy time when the owners aren’t on the machines. Then you’ll get the most relevant experience. That’s when you’re more likely to get someone in a hurry running your espresso as quickly as possible with the least attentive cleaning (if any) of the machinery between uses.
La Taza is opening a coffee cart in the Ix building on a test basis beginning next Monday. Good for me since I work at Ix, but I don’t know if there are enough of us out here to sustain a coffee cart.
Personally, my favorite coffee is the cup they serve at Downtown Grille
d’oy
Elizabeth - Isn’t that place amazing? Everyone from the pastries to the coffee is top notch!
I’m not much of a coffee snob myself (in fact, I’m unfortunately one of those obnoxious decaf drinkers who is still embarassed about my caffine intolerance and always apologizes to baristas whenever I place an order), but I am a milk snob. My number one pet peeve (at the moment, anyway) is the trend of coffee shops bragging about their shade grown, fair trade organic coffee while completely failing to carry organic milk. So while this doesn’t change the coffee aspect of the chart above, I would like to point out that Java Java is the only establishment on the mall that carries organic milk (for $0.50 more, which is the same surcharge as soy milk, so totally acceptable). If any cafe owners out there are reading this post, please just buy yourself a half gallon of ultra pasturizer Horizon (it keeps for weeks). I’m not even asking for grass fed, I just don’t want a side of hormones and an extra helping of antibiotics with my latte, and I’m willing to pay for it.
Lys, I completely agree. I love soy milk. Mudhouse.
Hmm, where’s Milano?
milano slipped my mind - Ill do an addendum
[…] few days ago, we did a “Cafe Round Up” where we discussed our opinions on the local Cafe scene. One of our astute readers, wendyaannn, mentioned that we had forgotten Milano. While, we tried to […]
Hey,
You failed to review Higher Grounds. I guess ultimately it’s a good thing we are so far under the radar. I give you props for your rankings and seemingly sophisticated palate. However, I supply the the coffee to Cubano which is 100%, USDA Certified Organic - Fair Trade - Rainforest Alliance. I learned how to roast in Seattle, my hometown, at Lighthouse Roasters where Duane Sorenson, the founder of Stumptown Coffee Roasters, also learned his craft.
As for Cubano, it started as Higher Grounds coffee house with light fare 11 years ago, and promptly morphed into a high volume super successful full service restaurant. This reality presents many challenges and was the catalyst for us to sell. As soon as you add an egg to the equation it becomes infinitely more complex. If you truly have visited Stumptown then you know that roasting and preparing coffee is a dedicated art. There are no bottles of ketchup or waffles with fruit at Stumptown - it’s just coffee. Cubano doesn’t have this luxury, and with all the daily challenges the place presents its owner/operator, Tony, still kicks ass! What started 11 years ago as a true unpretentious community gathering place where diversity is welcomed and encouraged - lives on. Great food. Great coffee. And a fun place to kick it in. I am proud of Cubano, and as busy as as it is, I am amazed at how well Tony does with his coffee. He cares about the product as much as I do. If he didn’t, I would pull it.
So in a sense, I suppose your round up does make me the de facto winner. Yet, I would like to issue you a challenge. Go to Higher Grounds on the corner inside Plan 9, Mon - Fri AM and have our barista Harper prepare an espresso for you. If you’ really wanna see the inside of the chocolate factory come visit us at our brand new roastery in Lovingston. I will personally roast and prepare for you a truly ” world class ” espresso.
william trager
Higher Grounds/Trager Brothers Coffee
I LOVE him…even if he does bust on me for drinking skim milk.
[…] seems as though La Taza’s curator felt scorned and hurt in our recent Cafe Round Up. But, why? […]
William, I will definently take your challenge. We know you make the beans for Cubano (and should have mentioned it), but you don’t have a stand alone shop! Nonetheless, keep checking back here you will see our opinion soon
P.S. Do you think you are better than Stumptown?
I have not tried Mudhouse’s iced coffee, but I will say that Splendora’s ranks as my favorite in town. It is pretty potent from a caffeine standpoint, and they don’t have decaf. So be careful when you’re drinking it around bedtime, wee ones! Flavor-wise, it is wonderful. Not too watery, very good depth, a nice clean finish, and none of the muddiness that usually occurs with iced coffee. I believe it’s Lavazza coffee but I could be wrong on that. Never tried the espresso there either - has anyone else?
Thor,
First let me say, I dig your blog. Second, I am happy that you have the kahonas to take the challenge - makes me like your blog even more.
Finally, if the specialty coffee world is a pyramid then Stumptown is right at the top. I would never be so bold as to say I am better, but I am definitely different. I have nothing but respect and admiration for Duane, but I have a very different vision then Stumptown.
I look forward to your participation in the challenge.
cya,
w.
Drink the coffee at La Taza and you might as well be putting money in George Bush’s pocket.
Though maybe a republican run coffee shop isn’t a bad idea since everyone knows that cafes have a liberal bias.
I really like Shen-Joe’s. It’s very good coffee that is brewed by people who know what they’re doing. It’s all about the coffee there. The room is comfy and the staff is very nice. I don’t judge a coffee shop by how cute the baristas are, but I do judge it by how nice they are. I have always been treated well at Joe’s. I can’t say that for ANY other coffee place in town that I have frequented. Give me great coffee and great customer service any day.
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Splendora’s also offers a full espresso bar, uses LaVazza espresso and coffee for its drinks, and we try to keep drink sizes closer to the European standard so that you are not getting a weak cup of warm milk with very little espresso in it. Be sure to ask how many shots are being put into your 8, 12, or 16 oz drink - you might be surprised. We put 1,2, and 3 shots into the small, medium, and large drinks. Makes a difference.
Mintyfresh - We do serve decaf coffee and espresso.
From a personal taste standpoint (I am going to get flamed here, but I’m ready), I think that American coffee roasters, including all of them in town here, over roast their espresso beans so that they become very dark, with an oily residue on the surface. This imparts too much roast into the flavor, and I find it a negative taste factor. Northern Italians roast to a noticeably lighter color, with no oil present on the bean (generally - of course there are exceptions), and this gives the espresso a very full, complex flavor without the acid and sour notes that a more darkly roasted bean develops. The LaVazza espresso blends that we use are typical of this northern italian style roast.
Finally, the LaVazza espresso blends are simply outstanding. The supercrema, which we offer, is a wonderful flavor, and the Pienaroma, which I think Milano used to offer, is a really interesting but very unusual blend that makes an exceptional espresso, though it isn’t for everyone.
Right- fire away.
I am not an espresso aficionado, and I had been habituating Starbucks (convenient, on the way to work) and Greenberry’s (which I thought was haute caffeine) but then I tried Shen Joe’s, and even this unsophisticated palate sat up and said WHOA MOTHERF*CKER, what’s that???
It was the taste of really good coffee, prepared in the right way. They take a lot longer than Starbucks to prepare your latte, but there’s a good reason for the wait.
I am not on the payroll–just a major convert to the most amazingly good espresso I’ve yet had.
Cafe Cubano carries Trager Brothers Coffee, better known as Higher Grounds, it’s so fresh and yummy because it is roasted in Nelson County. It’s no secret I own the Starlight Cafe/Coffeeshop in Lynchburg and we carry Trager Brothers too, it is truly awesome espresso and those Trager Boys know their stuff. Thor, and all of my cvillian friends come by for a cup. We want a score! Wow, what an obnoxious plug.
I have had particularly bad experiences at Java Java Downtown. The place is more of a boardroom than a cafe’ and the quality has suffered since their initial opening.
I am particularly partial to Shenandoah Joe’s especially because you can see what goes into your cup there, almost like an open kitchen at a restaurant…
These guys totally ripped our round up and didn’t even do all the places!
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/29/AR2008042902701.html
[…] and I would really like an espresso and a pastry.” I’m reasonably happy with the espresso situation, but the available pastries don’t compliment a morning coffee. We’ve got donuts, […]
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