The best cafes I know
I wanted to figure out “What makes a truly good cafe?”, where I, with laser-focus and fire, told you the truths. Too hard. There is no rulebook. Depending on location, any cafe can be good. So let’s have a list.
I’ll exclude cafes I’ve only visited. You have to see what it’s like to be in a cafe over time, maybe four trips is minimum. If I moved to Cukurcuma in Istanbul, I’d discuss a few cafes there; look at this spot on Earth!
The shift from daytime to nighttime is a great element. A cafe can play with that shift in a way that heightens the feeling and excites you for the second half. They might change the layout and ask the laptop people to move to different spots. If that’s done well, it’s wonderful.
Ranking things is always wrong, but ranking things is always more fun, so let’s rank:
(Honorable mentions: Chit Chat, Kavahana, Zinque, all in LA.)
The Conservatory for Coffee, Tea & Cocoa (Los Angeles)
My iced cappuccino here has frothed milk on top, like a hot cappuccino does, instead of being the usual milky mass. The americano on the printed menu (no menu on the wall) will be laid out like:
Americano S M L XL
3.50 3.50 3.50 3.50Just nice to see a layout like this (and not a given for every size to be the same price). The Conservatory knows it’s great and plays by its own rules; it’s open 8 am to 2 pm, Monday to Friday (and in an expensive part of town), no wifi, though laptops are allowed.
Lui Coffee (Tbilisi)
In five years in Tbilisi I didn’t find a clear favorite, but Lui is the best — all natural light (though grey walls), staircase down to the bathroom (and kitchen) in the basement, a children’s play area so that families can hang, and I actually ate things there and enjoyed them.
Many hours of trying to beat the shipwreck puzzle of The Witness at Lui…
Yiduo Coffee (Dali, China)
The easiest description of Dali is the “Venice Beach of China”, though it looks about negative 300% like Venice Beach and probably hasn’t contained a hard drug in 20 years.
Yiduo is not Venice Beach-y but receives the vibe benefits of being in Dali, and is mainly for locals and Chinese tourists. (Chinese tourists vastly outnumber international tourists everywhere in China.) You will have great conversations here.
Motoring Coffee (Los Angeles)
Car-themed cafe, with new cars inside every month;
The central shared table is the bed of a small Honda pickup truck;
A rack of the day’s newspapers;
An enormous space, most of which is reserved for members that pay a monthly fee and pass an interview about their love of cars (but the non-members area has a lot more natural light). I think this subsidizes the prices of the coffee a bit;
Car enthusiasts from all over the world that come by.
Cafeteria (Almaty; the one on 32 Baisetova St)
Does day and night equally beautifully. Dive into the night here. Bougie vibes, but sometimes that’s how it has to be in developing post-Soviet countries. You can read books for hours here (and be bougie in a different way). Closes at 11pm, and then you have a wonderful evening walk home.
RNY Coffee Studio (Los Angeles)
The best Korean-style cafe I know in the U.S. Perfect mix of work-y and relax-y. The drinks are great and interesting. Sometimes full of people and crazy. A lot of the time I’m the only white person there. K-pop concert ads. Happiest time: 9:30am to 1pm.
Bonsai (Los Angeles)
Maddening. Has the longest continuous line of 5-15 people that I have ever seen, from when I get there at 11am to 3:30pm(!); a slow-moving line, too. You can order online, but it will take 20 minutes to get your drink anyway, you might as well stand.
And it is the only two-hours-of-wifi-per-order cafe I know on the westside (which I’m good with — the average cafe laptop person spends way too little money per stay). Reconnecting to the wifi takes 90 seconds (and it keeps disconnecting as I write this paragraph).
And yet I go every day. Why? The customers (mostly university students) are working on things. You look in any direction and there is math, or chemistry, or code, or art. Those that aren’t working are talking excitedly, not lazily. It feels like everyone is pushing each other to do more cool things and learn more (yes this is good and not cringe). It is honestly pretty hard to return to most cafes afterwards. Peer effects really are quite strong.
Emissary (Washington, D.C., the Dupont one)
The best day-to-night transition I have seen. It works because it has four different layers - light (outside), mostly light, light-and-dark, and pretty dark. The middle two are the best.
And at night you move to the bar if you’re on a laptop, and the light and ambient sounds and menu are perfect, and you’re facing away from the diners but it works; you’re part of the environment which you’re enjoying.
Biscuit (Bishkek, the one on Tokombaeva 53/2)
This is the one far from city center, at the edge of a sleepy-ish residential area, and wonderful in part because of it. Families and singles of all ages, equally.
Meditative and fun and intense at once, pleasant lightly nervous energy from employees too. And just a truly gorgeous place to be. We’re so lucky to have the Sun, that it can cast light like this. Biscuit understands the Sun.
Tryst (Washington, D.C.)
I didn’t expect Tryst at #1. Any time I’ve been there, I never thought: I am in my favorite cafe in the world. But I just keep going. And regularly walking through DC to go to Tryst.
It is one big hall, no curves or nooks. It looks like everyone is waiting for a train that got delayed by five hours. There are eight types of furniture. An animal-shaped cookie with every order. Two bathrooms. Live sports on TV, which they don’t have to show since only me and like one other guy cares.
One time a man came in, put one piece of cutlery on as many tables as he could in 45 seconds of frenzy and left. I got a knife. When I’m at Tryst I don’t want to be anywhere else in D.C. And I don’t need to be in any other cafe.
I asked friends on Instagram for their favorite cafe in the world. Some answers: Arabica (Paris), Bad Mother (St. Petersburg, FL), Chatei Hatou (Tokyo), Katkevich (Riga), Rubi's Coffee and Sandwiches (Great Barrington, MA), Sienna (Calcutta), The Bulldog (Amsterdam).