The donut-hole nature of Charlotte\u2019s geography, which circles around the commercial Uptown, makes supporting local a natural choice. From artistic NoDa to hip Plaza Midwood and historic Enderly Park, many cafes are built on the ethos of the neighborhood where they are located.<\/p>\n
We\u2019ll visit six Charlotte standouts for this guide, but there\u2019s always more brewing. If you\u2019re in the area, check out the acclaimed<\/a> new Archive CLT<\/a>, a Black-owned vintage book and magazine shop with great coffee and tea, and try to time your visit with the annual No Filter Coffee Fest<\/a>, recently nominated for a Sprudgie Award<\/a> and helping to set an inclusive direction for coffee in the southeast.<\/p>\n Want a home away from home? You\u2019ll find it in Central Coffee Co.<\/a>, which South Charlotte native Jimmy Kleto opened with his parents in 2009, in the former convenience store his grandfather bought in the 1960s.<\/p>\n The \u201cCheers<\/i> of Plaza Midwood,\u201d as locals call it, is \u201cfunky, casual, and a little granola,\u201d Kleto says, with the stained concrete floors, wooden ceiling beams, and exposed brick walls of the 1920s-era building. Co-owner Louisa Kleto, Jimmy\u2019s wife, joined the family business in 2012, producing syrups, muffins, scones, and zucchini bread in-house.<\/p>\n The pandemic couldn\u2019t keep their community away. During lock-down, the Kletos released a Zoom background with Central\u2019s mint-green walls, Louisa says, \u201cin case anyone was missing them.\u201d The new work-from-home crowd loves the laptop-friendly community tables, and in the aftermath, \u201cvery few regulars haven\u2019t returned.\u201d<\/p>\n The Kletos serve single-origins from long-term partner and roaster Joe Van Gogh<\/a> (founded 1991) on a Synesso<\/a> Cyncra, and employ a Nicaragua Selva Negra from a farm they\u2019ve visited personally in their chocolatey nitro cold brew. The first Charlotte cafe to offer nitro, Central now sells two kegs a day and also offers refillable, ready-to-drink versions. Customers can enjoy coffee-infused beers and a seasonal pumpkin pie latte with pumpkin puree, too.<\/p>\n In the aftermath of the pandemic, the Kletos are considering reopening their now-closed South End cafe and building out a wholesale business that reaches beyond Queen City thanks to their partner, food and bev retailer Vibe NC<\/a>. They\u2019ve put their Innovation Grant from the City of Charlotte<\/a> towards making merch and expanding their food menu to include vegan, gluten-free options from local vendors like True Flour<\/a> and Crust Punk Baking<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen we opened in 2011, my wife Miracle and I didn\u2019t know we were starting something so new,\u201d says James Yoder, co-owner of Not Just Coffee<\/a> (NJC) and Night Swim Coffee<\/a>. \u201cAt the time, pour-overs or the now-ubiquitous EK43 grinders<\/a> were nowhere to be seen.\u201d<\/p>\n NJC has since grown into six cafes around Charlotte. While each offers a unique experience, all are driven by a \u201cclean, design-forward aesthetic\u201d and use La Marzocco<\/a> machines, with Night Swim Ultraviolet blend as the house espresso and Immersion as the house filter, with rotating single-origins on pour-over and espresso. The caramel latte, thanks to a recipe Yoder developed 12 years ago, is NJC\u2019s most popular.<\/p>\n So why \u201cNot Just Coffee\u201d? The Yoders brainstormed the name with the dream of drawing non-coffee drinkers too; James says it reflects the community and creative focus of their origin. The not-coffee menu includes classics like avocado toast alongside \u201can absolutely fantastic BLT with avocado,\u201d and sources from local farms and bakeries whenever possible, James says.<\/p>\n And about that community? Hosting events like jazz night, art openings, and women\u2019s arm-wrestling competitions is an integral part of the cafe chain\u2019s identity the team hopes to restore post-pandemic.<\/p>\n In late 2021, the Yoders joined forces with Todd and Erin Huber, founders of Undercurrent Coffee<\/a>, to launch the Night Swim roasting venture<\/a>, which now supplies all Not Just Coffee, Undercurrent, and Night Swim cafes.<\/p>\n Aside from being a Charlotte staple, says James, \u201cNot Just Coffee is our baby.\u201d He anticipates this will stay consistent as they grow Night Swim.<\/p>\n The current evolution of roaster\/cafe brand Summit Coffee Co.<\/a> began with intentional franchising<\/a>, which CEO Brian Helfrich introduced after taking over in 2011. \u201cWe\u2019ve been trying to do specialty in an accessible way,\u201d says Helfrich, sitting in front of a light in the shape of the phrase find your summit<\/i>. \u201cTo be successful, you need to invite people to be a part of the process.\u201d<\/p>\n Customer-focused from the outset, the Summit team sees value in local cafes having local ownership<\/a>\u2014like Summit Coffee NoDa\u2019s John and Melissa Varvaro. After living in NoDa for 16 years, says Melissa, \u201cWe couldn\u2019t turn down the opportunity to support our own space in the neighborhood.\u201d<\/p>\n The NoDa cafe was designed by Tyler Helfrich and showcases local artists that reflect the diverse, eclectic community. \u201cThere is a familiar Summit touch and feel to our cafe but with a color-outside-the-lines NoDa vibe,\u201d Melissa says.<\/p>\n As a roaster, Summit prioritizes strong producer relationships, sourcing 90+% of their coffee from existing partners, 62% of whom are women. \u201cCustomers know they\u2019ll get good coffee,\u201d says Chief Experience Officer Dora Callahan. \u201cHow do we surprise them with a great experience?\u201d<\/p>\n At Summit cafes, you\u2019ll find an approachable menu with customer favorites like the 16oz latte (with 24oz iced drinks on the way) and women-produced Basecamp blend<\/a> batch brew available at a lower price point than the featured batch brew. Plant-based milks have no upcharge.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have big ambitions but never to a point where we lose sight of the customer experience,\u201d Helfrich says. Sustainability is an important part of this journey; the roasting operation became climate-neutral in 2022. Summit has 10 locations as of 2022 and is rapidly expanding<\/a> in the southeast.<\/p>\n Tony and Becky Santoro co-founded Enderly Coffee Co.<\/a>, one of Yelp\u2019s 2022 \u201c100 best coffee shops\u201d<\/a> in the US, in 2012. Over the past decade, Tony\u2014a former Title 1 teacher who started out selling air popper-roasted coffee to churches\u2014became a SCA-certified roaster and barista and formed his \u201cintentional\u201d wholesale company around the tagline, \u201cPeople First. Coffee Always.\u201d<\/p>\n Perceiving that the typical third-wave experience lacked hospitality, Tony decided to bake approachability, quality, and community into the DNA of his brand, named for the historic, majority-Black neighborhood of Enderly Park where it\u2019s based.<\/p>\n The cafe is a bright, clean space featuring local art, where staff have free reign over the music and a cup of their top-selling, dark roast State Street Blend costs just over $2 cash. It\u2019s situated in a \u201840s-era grocery store, where Tony imagines nearly every local once set foot.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are joy dealers, facilitating an experience with a goal to make your day better,\u201d Tony writes on Enderly\u2019s insightful \u201cBean Blog.\u201d<\/a> Their washed Papua New Guinea, with tasting notes of lemon and honey, does that for me\u2014but Tony humbly deflects my compliments. The bridge he\u2019s building towards the well-rounded, approachable specialty coffee his customers want doesn\u2019t necessarily begin with lemon notes.<\/p>\n To ensure customers enjoy coffee to their tastes, the team encourages questions at the register. \u201cOur job is to blow their mind,\u201d says Tony, and Enderly regularly accomplishes this with their Honey Bee latte (made with hello honey<\/a>), rotating single-origins, and seasonal flavors like pumpkin pie and salted maple.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m filled with gratitude to be here after the pandemic\u201d\u2014during which Enderly launched a successful Friday home delivery program in partnership with local bakeries\u2014\u201cand for all our staff,\u201d Tony says.<\/p>\n I first encountered HEX\u2019s natural Indonesia with tasting notes of blueberry wine and earl grey at No Filter Fest. It was a \u201cHow is this coffee?\u201d moment\u2014turns out, that\u2019s their thing.<\/p>\n In 2015, HEX was a popup, which served as a good opportunity to share ideas with other Charlotte coffee brands and grow together, says Tanner Morita, co-founder and Director of Coffee. The Roastery, their main production space and espresso bar, opened in 2017.<\/p>\n The brand\u2019s tagline \u201cPOINTED TOWARD PROVENANCE\u201d serves as their barometer for selecting coffees that show terroir and roasting for vibrancy and sweetness. \u201cOur main goal is to be a progressive voice in Charlotte coffee,\u201d Morita tells me. \u201cWe wanted to push specialty forward, and present powerfully vibrant coffees in a market that was, at that time, not familiar with this style of uniquely fruited coffee.\u201d<\/p>\n HEX\u2019s minimalist, architecturally-minded aesthetic is designed to \u201clet the product speak for itself [and] show the incredible work being done at origin.\u201d<\/p>\n At their South End installation Stablehand, a sister concept that combines HEX Coffee with the Good Bottle bottle shop, you\u2019ll find coffee shots\u2014filter coffee through a La Marzocco GS3<\/a>\u2014instead of pour-overs. Customers gravitate towards bright tropical flavors, and the rotating list of filter and espresso means there\u2019s always a new experience (including seasonals like a rich and buttery Kabocha pumpkin squash latte).<\/p>\n HEX will soon open a new flagship cafe with a Modbar<\/a>, full-scale restaurant and natural wine bar, \u201cto put provenance forward,\u201d says Morita. Beyond putting coffee front and center, the cafe will also showcase the local food community and the team\u2019s ventures into natural wine.<\/p>\n Queen City Grounds (QCG) was founded in 2017 by childhood friends Adam Hummell and Paul Waggoner, a founding member of Between the Buried and Me<\/a> and owner of sister company Nightflyer Roastworks<\/a>, as a small corner coffee shop. It\u2019s since grown into three locations, including in 4th Ward, South End, and Wesley Heights, and offers in-house, small-batch roasting, beer, and wine.<\/p>\n For me as a recently diagnosed celiac, QCG\u2019s creative, accessible food menu and knowledgeable staff stands out. I got a kick out of seasonal drink names like the \u201cBasic Witch\u201d and \u201cChai Day the 13th.\u201d My \u201cIs It Pronounced Syrup or Syrup?\u201d featured homemade brown sugar syrup and QCG\u2019s signature Night Owl espresso blend with gluten-free oat milk.<\/p>\n QCG\u2019s focus on community and inclusivity reflects their \u201cCore Values,\u201d which are prominently displayed behind the bar at 4th Ward and encourage staff to \u201cbe genuinely hospitable,\u201d \u201cbe collaborative,\u201d \u201cbe stoked,\u201d and \u201cstay grounded.\u201d There\u2019s even a \u201cPay It Forward\u201d wall, where you can claim a drink paid for by a previous patron.<\/p>\n The original 4th Ward shop is a big industrial space designed by Cluck Design Collaborative<\/a> with a long coffee bar, exposed ceiling pipes, and black, silver, and wood accents. QCG\u2019s logo of an owl with spread wings looms large over the stairs to the mezzanine. Local art, including watercolors made with Nightflyer coffee grounds, adorn the walls above a mix of tables, stools, and comfy chairs.<\/p>\n QCG brings the personality down to the details (read: the red \u201c86\u2019d\u201d icon denoting a sold-out dish on their menu screen), and is a space that invites you to #StayGrounded\u2014and stay awhile.<\/p>\n Chlo\u00e9 Skye Weiser (<\/em>@apostropheskye<\/em><\/a>) is a freelance writer based in Denmark. Read more Chlo\u00e9 Skye Weiser for Sprudge<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n All photos by the author unless otherwise noted<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false,"gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"rendered","format":"html"}]},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Where to drink coffee in Charlotte, North Carolina.<\/p>\n","protected":false,"gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"rendered","format":"html"}]},"author":381,"featured_media":193948,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7029],"tags":[28452,3228,28453,8541,19214,28460,28455,19551,9420,28459,10455,342,9004,5404,25860,19550,27884,7483,7245,8181,28458,28457,7679,28451,28454,15915,7161,28456],"gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"link","format":"url"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sprudge.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193932"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sprudge.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sprudge.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sprudge.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/381"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sprudge.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=193932"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sprudge.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193932\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sprudge.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/193948"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sprudge.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=193932"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sprudge.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=193932"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sprudge.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=193932"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"charlotte](\"https:\/\/sprudge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/charlotte_centralcc_interior_chloeweiser-1200x800.jpg\")
Central Coffee Co.<\/h4>\n
![\"charlotte](\"https:\/\/sprudge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/charlotte_notjustcoffee_RIGHTSIZEinterior_chloeweiser-1200x800.jpg\")
Not Just Coffee<\/h4>\n
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![\"charlotte](\"https:\/\/sprudge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/charlotte_summitnoda_exterior_chloeweiser-1200x800.jpg\")
Summit Coffee Co. (NoDa branch)<\/h4>\n
![\"charlotte](\"https:\/\/sprudge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/charlotte_enderly_interior_chloeweiser-1200x800.jpg\")
Enderly Coffee Co.<\/h4>\n
![\"charlotte](\"https:\/\/sprudge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/charlotte_hex_interior_chloeweiser-1200x800.jpg\")
HEX Coffee Roasters<\/h4>\n
![\"charlotte](\"https:\/\/sprudge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/charlotte_qcg_interior_chloeweiser-1200x800.jpg\")
<\/p>\nQueen City Grounds<\/h4>\n