Best Independent Coffee Shops in the East

Located in the heart of Dover, Adelle’s is a hip hangout serving coffee from Seacoast Coffee Company in Portland, Maine. They brew drip coffee in small batches so it’s always super-fresh, and their espresso is bright, deep, and bold. To make their signature cold brew, organic Mexican coffee is steeped for six hours, and it’s dark and smooth. They pride themselves on expert baristas, great coffee, fresh pastries, signature bagel sandwiches, and a wide array of teas from White Heron in Portsmouth. On a hot day, be sure to order a made-to-order lemonade.

Allora Coffee & Bites founder Kim Steinberg grew up in a coffee-loving Italian-American household, and while studying abroad in Florence, the neighborhood caffè became her home away from home. Allora is her interpretation of that quintessential Italian institution, and it serves up spot-on versions of classic Italian coffee drinks, from cappuccino to macchiato, along with single-origin espresso, mushroom mocha, and plenty of teas. A variety of toasts and panini are also offered.

At Artifact, coffee is just the beginning. That’s not to say they don’t do coffee right: there’s a full lineup of espresso-based drinks as well as Japanese-style iced coffee, a Chemex for two, and even Moroccan-spiced iced coffee. But there’s also a huge food menu with everything from breakfast pastries, bowls, and sandwiches to lunchtime salads, soups, and sandwiches, including French dips, mushroom Reubens, and veggie bánh mì. And if you’re looking for something with a kick, there are even wines by the bottle and local craft beers.

Located in the heart of downtown Portland’s Old Port neighborhood, Bard Coffee is an airy and inviting coffee house that specializes in single-origin coffees roasted in-house. Opened in 2009, Bard has made it their mission to tell the story of the people and places their coffee comes from in each cup, and they’ve built relationships with each of their growers, including Francisca and Oscar Chacon in Costa Rica and Olvin Rivera in Honduras (their website also offers photos and bios of each). Beans are roasted using a top-of-the-line Loring Smart Roast by head roaster Bill Guddeck.

Barismo was founded by a group of baristas in 2008, as a small Arlington, Massachusetts, roastery with a mission to be as transparent as possible in their sourcing, and to be a cornerstone of the community. They traveled around the world buying coffee direct from the producers and vacuum-sealed them with Grainpro bag liners, two things that were considered cutting edge at the time. They added a small coffee bar to their Arlington roastery a few years later, and things continued to take off from there. Today, their flagship coffee bar is located in Cambridge, where they serve a rotating selection of fresh-roasted coffees from Colombia, Kenya, Guatemala, and Ethiopia along with a wide variety of baked goods and lunch items.

The folks behind BeanTowne Coffee House, a big city coffee shop in the heart of small town southern New Hampshire, are absolutely obsessed with quality. Their coffee is custom-roasted, sustainable, and Direct Trade. This is also one of the best sandwich shops around; all the meats are fresh-roasted in-house, and standouts include a classic Cubano and Chipotle Chicken with roast chicken, mushrooms, Swiss, bacon, and chipotle mayo. Coffee drinks are made with care by expert baristas, and art from local artists line the walls of the charming café.

Located a couple blocks west of Times Square, Bird & Branch is a specialty coffee shop run by a couple who are committed to giving back to the community. The shop operates as a job-training program for people with barriers to employment; they teach their trainees barista skills as well as soft skills required to obtain and retain employment. As for the coffee, they get theirs from San Francisco-based Saint Frank, which sources their beans through direct trade with growers. They’re serving single-origin cups and also turning it into signature drinks like the Blackbird, a latte made with espresso, blackberries, thyme, and housemade almond macadamia milk.

D Squared Java, founded by a team of professional baristas, brews single-origin coffees from partner roasters including Flight Coffee Co. in Bedford, New Hampshire; Tandem Coffee Roasters in Portland, Maine; and New Harvest Coffee Roasters in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. They work hard to stay on the cutting edge of specialty coffee brew science, and meticulously cup and brew profile each individual coffee that they serve in order to bring out their best characteristics. They also serve fresh baked goods from local bakeries, and are committed to being as sustainable and low-waste as possible.

Devoción was launched by Colombian-born Steven Sutton in 2006 on a singular mission to produce the freshest coffee imaginable, and it’s safe to say that he succeeded. His enterprise stands out from the pack through its unique sourcing and roasting process: All the beans come from more than 1,000 farm partners in Colombia, where they’re processed at the shop’s own facility in Bogotá. They’re then quickly flown to its Brooklyn roastery, where they’re freshly roasted and served as quickly as possible at one of three locations, two locations in Brooklyn and one in Manhattan’s Flatiron neighborhood. The end result is a cup of coffee that’s exceedingly fresh; it can go from farm to cup in as little as ten days, where others can take up to a year.

Everyman Espresso was founded by Sam Penix and Sam Lewontin in New York’s East Village, and it’s since expanded to SoHo and Brooklyn’s Park Slope neighborhood. They serve single-origin coffees from Durham, North Carolina-based Counter Culture, and have become one of New York’s most acclaimed coffee shops, thanks to the care and precision they put into brewing every cup. Their espresso-based drinks are all just about perfect, and they’re also offering limited-release teas and specialty drinks like turmeric lattes and an espresso “Old Fashioned” with simple syrup and bitters.

Function Coffee Labs was founded by the husband and wife duo of Ross Nickerson and Megan McCusker in 2015, after time spent traveling through Europe and discovering its best coffee bars. They returned with a desire to open Philly’s finest coffee shop, and succeeded. Their house coffee is a rotating single-origin offering from their sister company, Vibrant Coffee Roasters; they offer three higher quality, more complex, and dynamic single-origin “Lab Line” coffees prepared via Hario V60 pour-over; and they’re known for their super-concentrated single-origin espresso. They’re also baking cinnamon buns, croissants, and more from scratch.

Located inside a historic old house in the heart of downtown Dover, The House of Coffi (that’s the Welsh spelling, reflecting the origin of the founder) is a beloved local gathering place with a charming interior and a sunny porch outside. The coffee beans are roasted just hours before brewing, vinyl records are always spinning, and walls are decorated with artwork from local artists. It’s inviting and unpretentious, with a simple lineup of drip and cold brew coffee drinks and teas, along with bagels, pastries, and a rotating selection of sandwiches.

Located in Brooklyn’s Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood, Kitten Coffee was founded by Australian Rowan Tuckfield, who moved to New York in 2007 on a mission to brew the city’s best cup of coffee and set up shop the following year. Kitten sources and roasts their own beans, and each bag is hand-marked with a letterpress printer, with farmers’ names, tasting notes, coffee varietals, and production methods. All their coffees are “naturally processed,” meaning that the entire cherry is left to ferment in the sun, resulting in impressive depth and body. Kitten Coffee provides coffee to many of the city’s best restaurants, including one with three Michelin stars.

Leyla Dam Jenkins grew up in Spain, where she developed a love for churros and cortados (the Spanish coffee-and-milk blend), and in 2010, after finding herself unemployed in Brooklyn, she traveled back to Seville to learn the art of churro-making. The following year she moved to Darien, Conn., to learn the craft of coffee, and in 2012 she opened Lorca in Stamford. It’s a Spanish-inspired café serving classic coffee drinks from Vancouver, British Columbia-based 49th Parallel along with specialty drinks including the popular London Fog Tea Latte, made with housemade sweet Earl Grey tea concentrate, lavender, and milk, and the Lorchata, cold brew concentrate mixed with horchata. There’s also a huge variety of housemade baked goods and other snacks, including Spanish treats like alfajores, empanadas, and, of course, freshly-fried churros.

A specialty coffee company serving New York City since 2016, Black Fox has three Manhattan locations. It roasts its own coffee and showcases coffees from esteemed roasters around the world. Single-origins include Biftu Gudina (from a co-operative of farmers in the Jimma region of Ethiopia) and Victor Hugo Quiroga (from a small four-hectare plot of land in Colombia). And it’s one of the few coffee shops sourcing internationally roasted coffees, like beans from Square Mile in London and 49th Parallel in British Columbia. Even the matcha used in their matcha tea is single-origin. Pastries are provided by local favorite Pain D’Avignon.

This homey, brick-walled coffee shop is located just steps from Independence Hall in the heart of Philly’s Old City, and it’s a perfect spot for visitors to charge their batteries while sightseeing. They serve coffee from Minneapolis-based Dogwood Coffee, and locally based Elixr Coffee, as well as a nice selection of baked goods and sandwiches. Drip coffees, cold brew, and single-origin pour over are complemented by a variety of espresso drinks, teas, and whole beans.

Located in the heart of Somerville’s charming Davis Square near Tufts University, Nine Bar has become the neighborhood go-to for those looking for a perfect cup of coffee in an inviting, low-key space. Their coffee and espresso drinks are made with coffee from Boston-based Gracenote, and there’s also a nice selection of premium loose-leaf teas from Camellia Sinensis and fresh pastries from Salem’s A&J King Bakery.

Nestled in the heart of East Greenwich, The Nook is charming, cozy, and just a great place to get a cup of coffee. Owner Shannon Vincelette sources just about everything she serves locally, including coffee from New Harvest in Pawtucket, dairy from Narragansett Creamery, and bagels from Providence Bagels. There’s always a wide array of fun seasonal coffee drinks available along with the usual lineup, and it’s one of the only places in the state where you’ll find kombucha on tap.

Onyx Tonics operates under the philosophy that coffee is a living, breathing thing, and that the “terroir” of coffee, much like that of wine, affects its flavor but is usually blended and roasted away. At Onyx, their intention is to tease out the unique flavors of high quality coffees from around the world, and they offer a weekly rotating menu of at least six single-origin examples from high-end roasters, many of them local including, Carrier, Vivid, and Brio, all Vermont-based. Run by husband and wife Jason Gonzalez and Tiffany Farrant-Gonzalez, the modern and charming coffee bar provides the perfect opportunity to discover just how varied coffee can be.

Roast’d sources the finest beans from around the world, roasting them on-site in small batches, and serving them in a warm and inviting atmosphere. The well-trained baristas measure out exactly the right amount of beans for each serving, grind them fresh, and brew each cup to order. It takes a little extra time, but the end result is a cup of coffee that’s essentially perfect. Eight to ten single-origin coffees are on offer at any time, with something for everyone; the baristas will be happy to talk you through their selection, like sommeliers.

The spacious and stylish Sagtown Coffee is nestled in the heart of Sag Harbor Village, in the Hamptons at the eastern end of New York’s Long Island. The space itself is rustic yet chic (in true Hamptons style) with plenty of outdoor seating. Sagtown was founded in 2012 by Shane Dyckman as a place where the locals could gather and enjoy a great cup of coffee and light fare. Coffee is provided by Philadelphia-based La Colombe, and it’s put to good use in drinks including cold brew, oat milk latte, and black & tan (all on tap), as well as chai lattes, cappuccinos, and bulletproof coffee blended with ghee and MCT oil. There are also smoothies and smoothie bowls, and eats include overnight oats, chia pudding, avocado toast, and NYC-style bagels with smoked salmon and cream cheese.

Snowy Owl has become an irreplaceable central gathering space for the Lower Cape community. This rustic, low-slung small-town café and roastery has a warm, inviting glow and truly spectacular coffee, and shares a space with a beloved herb shop. The coffees they’re roasting are smooth and expertly brewed using several methods including Aeropress, Chemex, pour-over, traditional brew, and cold-brew. They also sell pastries, salads, and light snacks along with local art and gifts.

In 2012, after working in coffee in Boston, Martha’s Vineyard, San Francisco, and New York, Will and Kathleen Pratt found a home for Tandem Coffee Roasters in Portland, Maine. They built a cozy café and roastery in a 1930s brick building, and in 2014, they opened a second location in the West End. They work with small growers and specialty importers to source the best-quality green coffee beans they can find, and offer a variety of single-origin coffees and seasonal blends. They offer a pleasing lineup of coffee drinks and fresh-roasted beans, but the baked goods are not to be missed: they’re baked by the Pratts’ longtime friend Briana Holt, who worked at NYC destinations M. Wells and Pies & Thighs and was a 2020 James Beard Award semifinalist.

Thinking Cup opened just steps from Boston Common back in 2010, and the welcoming shop has racked up countless awards and accolades since then. They source their coffee beans directly from New York’s acclaimed Stumptown, and serve everything from $1.50 cups of straight-ahead java to single-origin pour-overs. They also turn out classic espresso-based drinks as well as specialty drinks including mocha with homemade chocolate sauce, hazelnut latte with fresh-roasted hazelnut paste, and hot chocolate made with 64% Tainori Valhrona Drinking Chocolate. There’s also an expansive menu of breakfast items and sandwiches, with plenty of gluten-free options.

Vigilante’s founder, Chris Vigilante, fell in love with coffee as a barista in Honolulu, and launched his first business with a small roaster on his back porch in D.C. in 2012. After selling his beans wholesale and at farmers markets, he opened a café and roastery in Hyattsville two years later with the help of co-owner Ashley Bodine and master roaster Franklin Ventura. They roast carefully sourced coffees from around the world, and serve single-origin masterpieces as well as wildly delicious blends. They also donate 1% of all annual sales to local charities.