turnitout Senior Member Joined: 27 Jan 2008 Posts: 17 Location: Pittsburgh, PA Expertise: I love coffee
Posted Sun Oct 18, 2009, 10:11pm Subject: Pittsburgh's Top Coffee Bars (Fall 2009 Revision)
Hello all. I am fairly new to Pittsburgh, and in recent months, due to a new job, I have found myself traveling around the greater Pittsburgh area quite a bit throughout the week day. Through an unfortunate combination of . . .a.) limited knowledge of the area, b.) many hours of "down time" between meetings, and c.) an unyielding coffee habit. . .I have regretfully been having "less than satisfactory" coffee experiences.
Long story short. . .To help my situation I have skimmed through the "Do you dare rate Pittsburgh's coffee bars?" forum, but felt a need for an updated/concise "short list" of the best places to go for espresso drinks in and around the city. (a "top 10" if you will. . .but without the obligatory ranking)
From what I have read, these seem to be the most recommended coffee bars. (in no particular order)
*Tazza d'Oro, 1125 N. Highland *21st Street, Strip District *LaPrima, Strip District *Aldo, 675 Washington Rd. *Voluto, 5467 Penn Ave. *Affogato, 613 Lincoln Ave, (Bellevue) *Vault, 3619 California Ave. *Blue Horse, 1535 Washington Rd. *Espresso al Mano, 3623 Butler St.
For the experienced Pittsburghers out there. . .are there any that should be added?. . .deleted? (I suppose there is room for 1 more, seeing that I have only listed 9.)
Posted Mon Oct 19, 2009, 5:21am Subject: Re: Pittsburgh's Top Coffee Bars (Fall 2009 Revision)
According to the original thread, Big Dog should be included. As a frequent visitor, I'd love to know which ones have evening hours. My work is on the airport side of town, and I'm not able to get to those shops during the day. Tazza d'Oro (at least 3 weeks ago) stayed open until 10:00 PM.
It reopened awhile back, but personally haven't been since the original crew left.
Happy to note that Bradly has resurfaced and is now at J'eet, serving up brews from Commonplace Coffee. It's across from Children's Hospital, (4200 Penn?) Went to the pre-opening last week and was impressed. Panini/crepe menu looks impressive as well.
Agreed that Big Dog should be on there and for JR's purposes, they are also open late most nights.
And I'm going to say something that's likely to be construed as heresy on this forum, but I have to think some of the Crazy Mocha shops must be doing a decent job. As I mentioned on our blog last week, we had a delay in shipping from Intelli, so I bought some of the CM espresso blend (disclaimer: it was roasted the day before, so I aired it out overnight, still gassy when we used it). It was the same formula Dana used to make the MARBC finals. We were pulling some excellent shots with it (even with the gas) and found it to be pretty similar to classic chocolatey/caramel Black Cat from 2005/2006. Nice body/texture. So issues with CM espresso shouldn't be about the coffee itself.
I'm hoping to get around to some of the CM cafes to see how they're pulling it. Given there's now 25 of them, that might take awhile.
jakeliefer Senior Member Joined: 3 Dec 2007 Posts: 39 Location: Beaver Falls, PA Expertise: I live coffee
Posted Fri Nov 6, 2009, 6:40am Subject: Re: Pittsburgh's Top Coffee Bars (Fall 2009 Revision)
Shameless plug for Beaver Falls Coffee & Tea, where I work. It's not in the city, but is in the greater Pittsburgh area (we're about 20 minutes northwest of Cranberry). We're a micro-roaster sourcing our beans directly from Finca Vista Hermosa, a farm in Guatemala that we visited this past year and La Minita's Sumatra, which scored a 94 on coffeereview. Since we're across the street from Geneva College we're open until 10PM or 12AM most nights. Check out the website at www.beaverfallscoffeeandtea.com
Worldman Senior Member Joined: 16 Nov 2004 Posts: 1,734 Location: Pittsburgh, PA, USA Expertise: Professional
Espresso: Expobar Office Control Grinder: Cimbali 6/S
Posted Tue Nov 10, 2009, 12:55pm Subject: Re: Pittsburgh's Top Coffee Bars (Fall 2009 Revision)
turnitout Said:
From what I have read, these seem to be the most recommended coffee bars. (in no particular order)
*Tazza d'Oro, 1125 N. Highland *21st Street, Strip District *LaPrima, Strip District *Aldo, 675 Washington Rd. *Voluto, 5467 Penn Ave. *Affogato, 613 Lincoln Ave, (Bellevue) *Vault, 3619 California Ave. *Blue Horse, 1535 Washington Rd. *Espresso al Mano, 3623 Butler St.
Posted Tue Nov 10, 2009, 5:08pm Subject: Re: Pittsburgh's Top Coffee Bars (Fall 2009 Revision)
Well, if BFC&T is "in the region" at 45 minutes from downtown, then gotta say Commonplace Coffee (Indiana, PA) is also in the region at 60 minutes and merits inclusion. Plus they've got 5 or 6 customers in Pittsburgh (e.g. J'eet), so they're somewhat accessible.
Worldman Senior Member Joined: 16 Nov 2004 Posts: 1,734 Location: Pittsburgh, PA, USA Expertise: Professional
Espresso: Expobar Office Control Grinder: Cimbali 6/S
Posted Tue Nov 10, 2009, 8:08pm Subject: Re: Pittsburgh's Top Coffee Bars (Fall 2009 Revision)
AldoCoffee Said:
...Commonplace Coffee (Indiana, PA) is also in the region at 60 minutes and merits inclusion. Plus they've got 5 or 6 customers in Pittsburgh (e.g. J'eet), so they're somewhat accessible.
Posted Wed Nov 11, 2009, 6:58pm Subject: Re: Pittsburgh's Top Coffee Bars (Fall 2009 Revision)
Andi and Bill's bar is called Amadeus and it's good as well. Commonplace is a retailer/roaster run by TJ Fairchild. He's been buying a lot of auction/CoE coffees of late.
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