Savor Scout › Food guides › Coffee
How to find a good coffee shop
A good coffee shop gets two things right: the coffee and the room. Which matters more depends on whether you need to work, meet someone or just grab a cup — and the best search starts from that.
What separates a good one from a bad one
- Fresh-roasted beans — Roasted within the last few weeks, with a roast date on the bag. Many good shops roast their own or name their roaster.
- Espresso pulled with care — Not bitter or sour. A good cortado or flat white is the easiest test.
- Milk steamed properly — Silky microfoam, not big bubbles or scalded milk.
- Pour-over or batch brew that tastes fresh — Drip coffee that has not been sitting on a hot plate.
- The right room for your purpose — Outlets, tables and quiet for work; comfortable seats for conversation.
What to order
- A cortado or flat white — To judge espresso and milk.
- Pour-over — To taste the beans.
- Drip coffee — If you need it fast.
- A pastry — If baked in-house or by a good bakery.
- Cold brew — In summer.
Where to find Coffee
Open listings put 31,914 coffee shops and cafés across the US. These are the cities and campuses with the most of them.
Cities with the most
New York, NY 828 Los Angeles, CA 397 Chicago, IL 372 San Francisco, CA 350 Philadelphia, PA 243 Seattle, WA 240 San Diego, CA 205 Portland, OR 181
Campuses with the most within a mile
Touro University 217 NYU 204 The Graduate Center 196 FIT 181 New School University 170 Baruch 151
A few to start with
- Rigor Hill Market — New York, NY
227 W Broadway, New York - Begin's Cafe — Los Angeles, CA
100 S Main St, Los Angeles - Meli Cafe — Chicago, IL
500 S Dearborn St, Chicago - Nina's Cafe — San Francisco, CA
201 Fell St, San Francisco - Cafe Urba — Philadelphia, PA
1500 John F Kennedy Blvd, Philadelphia - Cafe 5ive — Seattle, WA
901 5th Ave Ste 820, Seattle
Counts are listings in Overture Maps open data (September 2026), counted by the town in each address. Independent places only in the examples above, and they are a starting point rather than a ranking.
How Savor Scout looks for it
The search reads for specialty coffee, roaster, quiet, Wi-Fi and outlets, and lets you say what you need the shop for, which changes the answer completely.
Looking in a particular city?
Each of these opens Savor Scout with the location already set, so you can say what you want and it searches from there. It covers 1,000 US cities in total — these are simply the largest.
- New York, NY
- Los Angeles, CA
- Chicago, IL
- Houston, TX
- Philadelphia, PA
- Phoenix, AZ
- San Antonio, TX
- San Diego, CA
- Dallas, TX
- San Jose, CA
- Austin, TX
- Indianapolis, IN
- Jacksonville, FL
- San Francisco, CA
- Columbus, OH
- Charlotte, NC
- Fort Worth, TX
- Detroit, MI
- El Paso, TX
- Memphis, TN
- Seattle, WA
- Denver, CO
- Washington, DC
- Boston, MA
- Nashville, TN
- Baltimore, MD
- Oklahoma City, OK
- Louisville, KY
- Portland, OR
- Las Vegas, NV
- Milwaukee, WI
- Albuquerque, NM
- Tucson, AZ
- Fresno, CA
- Sacramento, CA
- Long Beach, CA
- Kansas City, MO
- Mesa, AZ
- Virginia Beach, VA
- Atlanta, GA
- Colorado Springs, CO
- Omaha, NE
- Raleigh, NC
- Miami, FL
- Oakland, CA
- Minneapolis, MN
- Tulsa, OK
- Cleveland, OH
- Wichita, KS
- Arlington, TX
- New Orleans, LA
- Bakersfield, CA
- Tampa, FL
- Honolulu, HI
- Aurora, CO
- Anaheim, CA
- Santa Ana, CA
- St. Louis, MO
- Riverside, CA
- Corpus Christi, TX
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When you might want this
- Where to have a breakfast meeting
- What to eat during finals week
- Where to eat when catching up with a friend