Coffee in Cedar Rapids (2011-2014)

Originally published as a Facebook Note in 2011; revised June 25, 2014. As of current date only two of these remain: Coffee Emporium and Roasters.

 Perhaps because we possess an extra portion of the entrepreneurial initiative that has made this country great, or perhaps because the multinational corporations were late moving in, Cedar Rapids has an excellent variety of local coffeehouses. Your humble correspondent now undertakes to introduce you to them; even local residents may not know about all of these. However, you’re not going to get the nuanced descriptions of a discriminating palate, at least not from me. I am only qualified to rate them for ambience, accessibility, and information, as well as size and density of baked goods, and this is what I’m going to proceed to do.

                Fortunately I got my introduction to the coffeehouse world through one of the best: Brewed Awakenings, 1271 1st Av SE. They offer a variety of coffee flavors, each carefully described on their chalkboard; baristas who take pride in their cremas (cremae?); terrific and reasonably priced baked goods; happy hour specials; an inviting seating area; and, once in a while, live music. They are, as far as I could tell, the only coffeehouse that offers French press. They offer their stuff to go, but if you’re staying your coffee is served in a ceramic cup. I came to see this last feature as a key difference between true coffeehouses and places-that-serve-coffee.

                Selflessly I wandered from coffeehouse to coffeehouse throughout the summer and fall of 2011, all for the purpose of providing you with the information you need to go exploring, or else to live vicariously through me. I won’t pretend to have enough information to rank them individually, but rank them by category. Where I had company I record their reactions as well.

               NOTE: No multinational corporations were included in this survey.

1. ALMOST AS COOL AS BREWED: homey places, located variously around town, with many of the same features

                Coffee Talk Café, 37 Kirkwood Ct SW. The coffee is good, chosen from a choice of two or three, and served in a colorful ceramic mug. They have informational cards with their choices of coffee, but I didn’t see basic information like dark or light. The woman behind the counter was very friendly; I ordered a blueberry muffin, and she offered to heat and butter it, which I declined, but noted. There were a couple women there, one with a newborn, and a guy with a laptop. So, all good.

                Roasters, 1075 Center Point Rd, Hiawatha. It’s a nicer place than I remembered from past years… maybe they’ve  remodeled? Coffee’s in Styrofoam cups, and it’s self-serve, but they do offer cups for samples. When another counterperson came in, they were talking about coffee, which is a good sign. They had six choices of coffee, two organic. Jane praises their wide variety of tea flavors.

               Tatyana’s, 1725 Boyson Rd, Hiawatha. Tatyana is Russian, and adorable. They have the usual fare, and serve lunches, and some special touches if you look for them. I had apple cinnamon cake. There weren’t many other customers there at that time of the afternoon (2ish).

2. DOWNTOWN MARION: an old-fashioned downtown, very charming but with coffee situation very much in flux with the loss of the Flat Tire Cafe

                Vintage Retail and Café, 933 8th Av, Marion. Formerly Marion Square Gardens, and basically the same (coffee drinks, sandwiches and frou-frou stuff) under the same owner, although he told some other customers he is trying to sell it, so I’m not sure whether and in what form it’s still there. I had iced chai, which he had suggested on an earlier visit. Eli had a piece of cheesecake from their limited selection of pastries, and he ordered pop but our owner convinced him to switch to a smoothie.

                Witte’s End, 630 10th St, Marion. Like Brewed Awakenings it was founded but is no longer owned by Deb Witte. It’s an unusual layout: several small rooms with a few seats in each. It wasn’t all tables and chairs, either. There were couches and overstuffed chairs, too, so when it started to fill up after 11 it was awkward with people looking for seating. There are also some outdoor seats on the back porch. I had coffee—they were down to only one variety by the time we got there—in a ceramic cup, and a muffin, though I should have tried some of their other baked offerings. Robbie had a frozen mocha, and Eli a vanilla Italian soda, and both pronounced them good.  They close at 2.

3. LOCAL CHAINS: corporate in a local sort of way, nice facilities and efficient service

                Coffeesmith’s, 2300 Edgewood Rd Ste A. I went to their new palace near Westdale Mall. I had the “flavor of the month” which was a Brazilian medium roast; there are two regular flavors with cryptic names as well as decaf. It was served in a paper cup, but the accompanying and very delicious pumpkin pound cake was served on a ceramic plate. They are open til 10—11 on Fridays—both here and at 7037 C Av NE, making it the place for late night local coffee.

                Java Creek Café, 588 Boyson Rd NE. The coffee I had, their house dark roast, was good, though it was served in a Styrofoam cup. The brownie I had was good, too, but $3 for 4 square inches. Eli’s cheesecake was $4, so maybe their treats are a little pricey. Eli liked his vanilla Italian soda a whole lot. Interestingly their website talks up their food menu and not their beverages.

4. DOWNTOWN CEDAR RAPIDS: essentially lunch places that also serve coffee throughout the day, oriented to office workers passing through

                Blue Strawberry, 118 2nd St SE. I had coffee and a muffin (piña colada—sweet!), and Eli had a smoothie and a pumpkin bar. All good. The coffee was in a Styrofoam cup. You serve yourself from a variety of coffee dispensers, with names not descriptions; refills are normally 99¢ but the dispensers are out of sight of the counter so you’re on the honor system. I took the chance to sample some flavored coffee—chocolate almond—that was too sweet.

                Coffee Emporium, 230 3rd Av SE.  Very narrow facility near the Armstrong Center Food Court. A lot of coffee flavors, and sizes, but only Styrofoam cups.  My cranberry muffin was very moist. There was one outside table, occupied by a woman smoking.

                The Early Bird, 316 2nd St SE. The coffee was fine; it is from the Intelligentsia Coffeehouse near John Marshall Law School in Chicago. They have dark and medium roast, as well as a decaf (“Librarian’s Blend,” because it’s reliable and comforting but a little eccentric); you serve yourself, in paper cups they provide, so refills are free. Eli missed Italian sodas and had a bottle of apple juice; Robbie had a chai latte which he said tasted weird. Their in-house bakeshop, The Wright Touch, tends to the small and twee. We tried the popout cupcakes, which were flavorful but were $2.95 apiece. They close at 2.

                Mr. Beans, 200 1st St SE.  It’s in the old Alliant building, where Coffee Emporium used to be, having moved from Town Centre. My complaint about Mr. Beans, both in Cedar Rapids and at their Marion location, has always been the presence of loud televisions; here they had only one TV and it was off. The coffee was fine; like Blue Strawberry, they give you a Styrofoam cup and you choose your pot. They have a nice outside seating area, as well as a capacious indoor area. I chose indoors, which that day gave me a front-row seat for the 1st Av Parkade demolition.

5. UNCLEAR

                Kaffein, 329 10th Av SE. It’s a little shop in the Cherry Building, but it’s not set up for any but transient customers. There’s only one table and the owner was using it. So I got my coffee and snack to go. The coffee was pricey for the size and quality. They only have baked goods intermittently so I wound buying a Special K protein bar.

…AND ONE SPECIAL BONUS CUP ON ME!

               Lampost (sic) Theatre and Coffee House, 2304 W. Seerley Blvd, Cedar Falls. It’s a nice little place, near University of Northern Iowa, with a theater in back. The coffee is served in ceramic mugs, with choice of light, dark or flavored. There are plenty of food options, and they serve interesting lunches. Eli chose a cinnamon roll to go with his vanilla Italian soda; the soda was good, he said, but the roll was not. We played a couple games of chess on a glass board.