The all-day coffee shop and bar from two Northside Social alums brought pour-overs, rotating art exhibits, and mixed drinks to downtown Takoma Park in 2017. The popular cafe has since doubled its seat count by growing into the space next door. A custom espresso machine built for the restaurant is fed a strict diet of Counter Culture Coffee, and a front counter with a white quartz top features a display case stocked with pastries and other impulse buys. Place pickup and delivery orders here.

Lost Sock Roasters opened its first retail shop earlier this year. It’s narrow, yet comfortable storefront in Takoma serves pour-overs showcasing beans from Ecuador and other South American countries as well as toasts, cheesy pan de yuca, and Argentine-style empanadas. The small-batch coffee company could be found long before opening its first shop, selling brewed coffee at Call Your Mother and A Baked Joint, among other places. Order online here.

Since opening in 2017, this cafe from Veronica Cooper (aka Miss V) has provided its Northeast neighborhood with an open, collaborative space to sip freshly brewed coffee and browse products from local vendors. The small business is deeply invested in local arts, serving as a space for live music and pop-up markets.

The word that immediately comes to mind at La Coop is family. Founder Juan Luis Salazar Cano sources the beans from a collective he organized in his hometown of Union Cantinil, in Guatemala’s Huehuetenango region. The coffeeshop operates out of a quaint Manor Park house, surrounded with a white picket fence and complete with a spacious yard and porch to lounge in with a chai latte or an herbal tea. The coffee shop also sells Colombian-style empanadas, burritos, quiche, and New York-style pizza.

The eponymous Prince George’s County roastery from Chris Vigilante sells beans from throughout Latin America, Indonesia, and Ethiopia, offering retail bags of Colombian “El Fuego” and “Guatemala Dank.” The HQ in Hyattsville and a sibling cafe in College Park both offer preorders for curbside pickup.

Büna Coffeehouse helps customers start their days right with two espresso shots in every cup. The coffee shop, which opened on Georgia Avenue in Petworth in 2019, offers deli favorites, including BLTs and turkey sandwiches, alongside Ethiopian breakfasts like ful or berbere-spiced eggs, as well as beef tibs and a couple of vegan options.

One of the most respected small-batch roasters in D.C., Qualia operates a tiny storefront in Petworth and an outpost in Eckington, both open for pickup (order here). Beans come from Ethiopia, countries throughout Latin America, and locales such as the Indonesian island of Flores. Qualia also offers local delivery for retail beans within three days of roasting.

Wydown pop-ups bounced around U Street before it settled into its cozy 14th Street space. It serves java from Passenger in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. A second location in the Apollo apartment building on H Street NE thoughtfully offers separate seating areas for residents and visitors. Order online here.

Colada Shop, which already has two bright and colorful locations on 14th Street NW and the Wharf, is set to open another location this spring. The new cafe will be in Potomac, Maryland, and will offer an expanded menu beyond its sweet Cuban espresso, rum cocktails and pressed sandwiches. Expect to find its biggest location yet complete with plantain chip nachos and plantain latkes. 

Royal is one of the first shops to occupy the all-day cafe niche in the D.C. scene. In the morning, go for Counter Culture Coffee and matcha lattes, and don’t forget to add a breakfast sandwich or arepa. There’s also a bottomless drip for $7 (8 a.m. to 3 p.m.). Order takeout here.

This neighborhood go-to feels miles away from the fast pace of 14th Street, but it’s just a few blocks. Before the pandemic, vintage sofas and plush chairs were prime seats, but right now TCB is operating for pickup only. However, the dog-friendly front patio is still outfitted with tables. The cafe sources from several roasters, from Ceremony in Annapolis to Verve in California and Bespoken in Oregon. Order online here.

While Compass Coffee has struggled during the pandemic, shuttering stores and laying off many of its workers in the process, it’s now in the process of revival. The local company, which opened its first shop in Shaw in 2014, recently reopened its downtown locations at McPherson Square and 18th Street NW. It still has locations in Shaw, Arlington, and Spring Valley.

Café Unido, which is housed in Latin market La Cosecha, is the first U.S. location of a Panamanian coffee chain. Founders Benito Bermudez and Mario Castrellon — a chef with a place on San Pellegrino’s list of Latin America’s 50 Best Restaurants — source beans directly from growers in Panama and donate a percentage of their sales to social and environmental projects. Choose from a selection of pour-overs or pick something up from the outdoor takeout window.  

Along with a house espresso from Third Coast Coffee and its Madcap’s Six-One-Six drip coffee, Slipstream sells single-origin coffees that come in carafes accompanied by informative cards. The original in Logan Circle has a patio with prime views of a bustling corner on 14th Street NW and wall-to-wall windows inside that bathe the space in natural light. Avocado toasts and light rice bowls here are some of the best in the city, and the cafe turns into a restaurant with a cocktail bar at night. There’s a sibling cafe in Navy Yard. Preorder for pickup here.

The former Adams Morgan pop-up is now a standalone cafe in NoMa that employs a range of brewing gadgets like AeroPress, V60, Chemex, French press, syphon, and a Kalita Wave dripper. The rotating lineup shows love for domestic roasters (Heart Coffee Roasters out of Portland, Brooklyn-based Forty Weight Coffee Roasters) and beans from Kenya, Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador. A pastry program from Jenny Shutan, a former sous chef at Chef Geoff’s in Tyson’s Corner, includes buttermilk biscuits, elderflower pear muffins, scones, cookies, and banana streusel muffins — all baked on the premises. A second location opened last fall in Arlington in the former Java Shack. Order for pickup here.

Eaton DC’s stylish lobby-level cafe sells fair-trade coffee from Red Rooster Coffee of Floyd, Virginia, alongside organic teas, daily doughnuts, muffins, and free cookie-with-coffee pairings. Golden turmeric lattes and “mushroom” hot chocolates accompany progressive reads from a nearby magazine kiosk.

This Jakarta-based coffee company with four stores in Indonesia opened its first U.S. location in downtown D.C. in 2019. Along with coffee and tea, signature drinks include a tonic and a bottled matcha with mango. There are fluffy toasts that bring milk bread to mind, and a crispy spring roll stuffed with banana and melted chocolate.

This H Street NE coffee shop is part of D.C.’s integral Ethiopian food and drink scene. Along with espresso drinks like the Sidamo macchiato, the cafe has chai and loose leaf teas served with a pot of water, allowing patrons to stay a while and relax. There are also smoothies and sandwiches for breakfast and lunch.

Erik Bruner-Yang’s versatile Taiwanese-Cambodian restaurant on H Street NE contains multitudes. Maketto sells streetwear, houses a record store, and has a cafe component that brews local roasts curated by Foreign National group coffee director Reggie Elliott. Order online here.

A stalwart in D.C.’s independent coffee scene, Peregrine Espresso celebrated a decade in business in 2018, but was forced to close its 14 Street location last summer due to rising rents. Its espresso and flash-brewed coffee can still be found at Eastern Market, Union Market, and a pop-up at the Pug on H Street NE. The coffee shop’s founders went on to open their own specialty roasting company, Small Planes Coffee, near National Arboretum. Preorder for pickup here.

Cameo was the first vendor to open inside the Roost, a Southeast food hall run by prolific Neighborhood Restaurant Group. The coffee shop sells seasonal lattes using beans from Brooklyn roaster Parlor Coffee and switches things up monthly, so expect ambitious flavors. For sweet lovers, there’s also a menu of muffins, cupcakes and chocolate bars.

In 2016, Commonwealth Joe Coffee Roasters opened a sleek Pentagon City headquarters with nitro cold brew coffee on tap, a pour-over station, and a glass-enclosed cupping room. The owners also ran longtime Arlington fixture the Java Shack, which closed in 2018 and was later occupied by Sweet Science Coffee.

With a D.C. history spanning more than a century, Swing’s Coffee Roasters boasts two locations downtown and a flagship roastery in a window-lined industrial space in Del Ray. The teleworker-friendly coffee bar in the Alexandria building hosts free cupping labs and offers growler refills of cold brew.