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Yahappynow t1_iyowdnh wrote

At the risk of blowing up my apparently secret spot: Café Los Sueños has great drinks, beans, and stocks Oven Bird baked goods.

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_reptilia_ t1_iyp1qyt wrote

Los Sueños is great! Out of the way for me during the week, but I'll drive there on weekends

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Ndysmth t1_iypifoe wrote

Love that los sueños is one of my local spots but I gotta get peoples opinions on the “pour over to go” in the batch pots! 🤔

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NationalMyth t1_iyqrsxn wrote

Yeah I'm curious on that one. I've never seen them make one of those pots.

On a similar note, is a drip maker just an automatic pour over, functionally anyhow?

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Djaq t1_iysa6fe wrote

Yep, they do it all by hand! Sometimes you’ll see them line up pour overs and just make a ton at once for their pots.

I don’t have enough coffee knowledge to understand drip vs. pour over though lol

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Ndysmth t1_j01mphn wrote

I’ve seen the row of pour overs behind the counter and figured that’s what they were doing. Interesting to see!

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Ndysmth t1_j01mkdf wrote

You could say they are the same ‘functionally’ but not the same end result. This doesn’t mean you can’t get coffee to taste good with a drip/batch brew system but you just lose some control with large batches. Seeing them actually make multiple pour overs at once and out into a pot is essentially creating an environment like a batch brewer where it will balance any subtly off flavors, but for me this also loses some of the nuance of the ritual. Anyway, I’ll link an article if you’re interested.

https://www.deathwishcoffee.com/blogs/coffee-talk/pour-over-vs-drip-coffee

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vy_you t1_iypism6 wrote

Ditto, i always get both their coffee and horchata and if there's any left, the pain au chocolat

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professorparmesan t1_iyr209a wrote

Café Los Sueños is top of my list, but they are strongly anti-decaf. I have a friend who can’t have caffeine for medical reasons, but loves coffee/espresso drinks so we can never go there when we hang.

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lpycb42 t1_iyr916f wrote

Just like me. That’s where I need to go.

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ContinentalOp_RG t1_iytb273 wrote

Glad you mentioned the baked goods. I've been wanting to check out both but Los Sueños is a lot closer,

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reese-dewhat t1_iyow6tx wrote

  1. Dunkin on Biddle St
  2. Dunkin on Guilford Ave
  3. Dunkin in Penn Station

RIP Funks Democratic Coffee Spot

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Royal_Excitement2473 t1_iyp0h8j wrote

Funks was something special. Thought nobody else remembered.

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coldbrewbruh73 t1_iyp6t97 wrote

I remember Funk’s! I went there before I was old enough to go to bars. I remember being really stoned with my girlfriend at the time,and some guy tried to teach us how to play Magic the Gathering, this was around’93 or so, the game had just come out, we were not interested! I also remember hearing live music there as well.

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wbruce098 t1_iyrq8k8 wrote

Ah, Dunkin, almost as good as RoFo and slightly better than Wawa! I’m surprised there aren’t more locations in Baltimore… /s

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fire_foot t1_iyor1w5 wrote

Limited experience but Baby’s on Fire is a true gem and I love being so close.

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earnestlikehemingway t1_iypksou wrote

Strictly for the Coffee and Beans / roasts.

  1. Cafe los Sueños (Do their own Roasting)
  2. One Do (Do their own roasting)
  3. Sophomore (They had multiple bean)
  4. Vent (Do their own roasting)
  5. Ceremony (Do their own roasting) and crazy coffee experiments.
  6. Witches brews in MOMS is good and cheap (Do their own roasting)
  7. Artifact (Uses Counter Culture)
  8. Atwaters (Uses Counter Culture)
  9. Oder and Chaos (Uses Vent)
  10. 3 Bean Coffee ( Uses Vagrant)
  11. Patango (Uses Vigilante, it’s a hit or miss how they make the espresso, but the beans are good)
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delmarco_99 t1_iyr62an wrote

Yeah, One Do’s “ardi blend” is worth the trip.

Going to have to stop by los suenos here soon!

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[deleted] t1_iyo7s6z wrote

[deleted]

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ThoughtCollection t1_iyoeztx wrote

I haven’t been to good neighbor or sophomore, I’ll have to check ‘em out.

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represent_represent t1_iyp1gs2 wrote

This is my list, just reverse it!

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Ndysmth t1_iypiaxi wrote

Definitely putting sophomore at the top! I really love good neighbor and the design elements of everything though

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murthivelli123 t1_iyoghzd wrote

  1. Artifact
  2. Everything else
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Hisyphus t1_iyp5bcc wrote

The service at Artifact is dismal. A 20 year old in her grandmother’s bowling shirt and cat ears rolled her eyes at me and said “too bad, we’re out of the ingredients.” After she’d looked me in the eye, taken my order where I’d asked for an iced London Fog, and then proceeded to make it hot. I even apologized to her like I was the asshole.

Not to mention the time I found a staple in my oatmeal.

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fiestypinapple1004 t1_iyp80bf wrote

This is legitimately the most Artifact thing I've heard in my life. I love them but their service can be wild sometimes 😂

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Hisyphus t1_iyp89xk wrote

100% 😂 like I too was once the hipster giving terrible customer service, but now I’m just old and tired and want my goddamn iced London Fog.

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Timid_Teacher t1_iyp89jq wrote

That's crazy you have that experience. I had my car battery die the other day and someone who worked there agreed to go get jumper cables and help me start it right away. It was super sweet and it saved me from having to have my car towed.

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Hisyphus t1_iyp8j8w wrote

It’s a mixed bag there. I’ve also had perfectly pleasant, if slow, service.

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Timid_Teacher t1_iypd1id wrote

I’m sure. I don’t doubt it. I do love Artifact though, and they’re always friendly in my experience. I’m sure there’s odd ones out, but I guess I’ve been lucky to always have positive experiences.

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OrganicSugarFreeWiFi t1_iyp9drv wrote

>“too bad, we’re out of the ingredients.”

The missing ingredients being... ice?

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Hisyphus t1_iyp9rmh wrote

Lmao their ~special~Earl Grey syrup or whatever 🙄 and no, she could not be bothered to hand me a cup of ice either. It was just a real head scratcher of an interaction.

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CrabEnthusist t1_iyojkdj wrote

Artifact is way too expensive for me to justify as a regular thing, but goddamn if they aren't excellent

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murthivelli123 t1_iyokljp wrote

Oh no doubt. I go to other coffee shops to enjoy the caffeine. I go to Artifact to enjoy the coffee.

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baltGSP t1_iyp8asg wrote

  1. Charmingtons (Obama agrees)
  2. Las Suenos
  3. Sophomore
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Ikickpuppies1 t1_iyqocwk wrote

Eh I hate to be disagreeable so I’ll rephrase in the form of a question… what did you like about charmingtons? I’m not implying anything bad about it, I enjoyed the experience but it is the definition of “okaiest”

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baltGSP t1_iysju8b wrote

Because I'm loyal to the local cafe that's a friendly, reliable member of the neighborhood.

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Ikickpuppies1 t1_izeabx8 wrote

I love that. Tbh that’s an intangible I wasn’t considering. Kinda reframed things for me.

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NationalMyth t1_iyqs97q wrote

Charmingtons is maybe one of the more convenient locations for someone on the go. But holy heck their inconsistency is wild. There was a large air of apathy for a while around 2019 but that seems to have softened lately.

I've never seen a sadder bagel in my life. Toasted? Roll the dice. Cream cheese? We'll run a brick of it on your bagel and see what sticks.

That said, they are worker owned and definitely do what they can to provide for employees and community.

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monkeycat909 t1_iyrhxak wrote

I respectfully disagree about the bagels. I think their bagels are well-toasted (MUCH better than On The Hill's "toast" situation) and am happy with the amount of cream cheese on them. Some places add so much cream cheese that it's overkill and wasteful. For me, Charmington's hits the cream cheese sweet spot. It's not an authentic NYC bagel, but it's also not really a bagel shop.

However, I rarely order a bagel there because their breakfast sandwiches are SO good. They make a delicious vegan bacon.

I didn't go there in 2019 so I can't speak to that, but I think the current staff is lovely and A+ for being worker-owned.

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gizmojito t1_iyrnz50 wrote

Charmingtons is a convenient location for me, one of the main reasons I go there, but I do like their bagels (with butter or smoked salmon, cream cheese, etc if I’m splurging.) They’ve always been nicely toasted. What I really like is their “Buzzilla” - coke, espresso and vanilla syrup. And I have a fondness for them because back in 2016, I sat in there for hours upon hours drinking some coffee but mostly studying for a licensing exam that I ended up passing.

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katastatik t1_iyosupk wrote

I love the daily grind

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gimlets_and_kittens t1_iyp288b wrote

I loved it for it's plentiful seating, solid wifi, and relatively low price. I hated it for it's coffee.

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katastatik t1_iyp3s8z wrote

That's funny - I love it for all those things too, AND the coffee.

I always get two Iced Red-Eyes w/ no cream or sugar.

Fantastic to sip that outside looking at the water while thinking/writing - It's all atmosphere. There may be better coffee elsewhere, but that doesn't matter much to me. Places like in front of the the Daily Grind or sitting at the bar by the window at Dooby's or Cafe Fili just work beautifully for me as places to chill, observe and think.

Coffee is an experience.

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Painndaneck t1_iypuex7 wrote

Because I’m not seeing them here: blackacre in Lexington market has fantastic coffee and very friendly people

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ThoughtCollection t1_iyoeu5h wrote

  1. OneDo
  2. Vent rosters
  3. Ceremony
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wcmotel t1_iyp9sm8 wrote

If you mean the place behind Safeway, Do is horrible.

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bunnyaesthetic t1_iyqr33p wrote

I love OneDo :( mind if I ask why you'd rank it so low?

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wcmotel t1_iyqtpcz wrote

Last time I was there 7 people were behind the counter and only one person was making drinks. It took 15 minutes to get a single, plain latte ($6) and it was room temperature. Just absolute shit customer service every time I’ve been there. Never again.

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[deleted] t1_iyoujqo wrote

[deleted]

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LittleCrumb t1_iyp16va wrote

Black Acres is in OpenWorks (where Greenmount Coffee Labs was) and it’s excellent! I highly recommend it

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_reptilia_ t1_iyp1nl1 wrote

Curious why you hate Ceremony?

I'm a fan of Good Neighbor and Vent myself

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tjscouten t1_iyp7uzr wrote

I don’t hate ceremony, I have just had a dozen or so bad experiences with them. Seemingly snobby, impatient employees annoyed/uninterested in serving customers. Coffee is good, customer experience is bad.

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bunnyaesthetic t1_iyqqx8t wrote

I wonder how our experiences have been so different... my partner and I are regulars at the Mt. Vernon location, and the employees have been nothing but friendly and welcoming. If anything, that's the best part about going to Ceremony for me lol

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_reptilia_ t1_iyp8gbu wrote

Fair. The Mount Vernon location has been like this for me. Not so much at the Harbor East or Cross Street Market ones. Harbor East is usually quick with their orders and pretty accommodating.

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fire_foot t1_iypexir wrote

I have had this experience in the Mt Vernon store a bit, I tend to go to Baby's instead (the Bun Shop doesn't exist to me). I had coffee catered for an event from the Harbor East/Fells Ceremony location, though, and they were amazing. Perfectly punctual, prepared, and communicative. My boss wanted us to get Dunkin but everyone was so happy to have Ceremony.

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LeetSawse t1_iypz500 wrote

Pie time. Their coffee is great and their breakfast specials have been on point.

Morning Mugs. I don’t work on that side of the city anymore, but they had good brew and a fun gimmick.

Vent has good coffee but the coffee shop is off the beaten path. Bonus points for having chocolate covered espresso beans.

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wbruce098 t1_iyrql24 wrote

Pie time is hella fun! I’m not a massive pie fan personally but the coffee is spectacular and it’s right down the street :)

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BaltimoreBourboner t1_iyp65uc wrote

  1. Cafe Los Suenos
  2. Good Neighbor
  3. Carma’s
  4. Bird in Hand
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NationalMyth t1_iysslzg wrote

I wish Carma's would open up again

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BaltimoreBourboner t1_iysuf68 wrote

She’s got a satellite cafe set up at Hopkins in the Space Telescope Building. I’m not sure if it’s accessible to non-Hopkins folks though. Last time I asked her if she was still going to reopen in Charles Village, she said it was still the plan. So one day hopefully!

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moderndukes t1_iypptcn wrote

I didn’t realize Ceremony was so polarizing

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APFernweh t1_iyry37g wrote

Ceremony tastes like a Russell Stover raspberry goo-filled chocolate. It's terrible.

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_reptilia_ t1_iyp10dk wrote

  1. Ceremony
  2. Sophmore
  3. Cafe Dear Leon
  4. Artifact
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NorthboundGoose t1_iyplnf9 wrote

Koba Cafe (mostly because no one’s mentioned it but it’s good)

Mindpub (good place to work- food is good and cheap)

The Bun Shop (vibes)

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danaker2 t1_iyqq601 wrote

I don’t see Zekes in anyone’s lists?

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TheSeekerOfSanity t1_iyrpp02 wrote

Too well-known. Not cool anymore.

Hippie Blend is awesome. Good coffee especially for take home grinds.

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drydabland t1_iznm68o wrote

Zekes roasts terrible coffee these days, everything tastes like an ashtray, sad to say it

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SeaworthinessFit2151 t1_iyp8m34 wrote

Man I hate ceremony.

Best is dear globe. Not a fan of vagrant either.

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tubatits t1_iyq7u82 wrote

I’m a little shocked to see people saying common ground. I’ve never had a decent coffee from them. Always watery and…..just bad.

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noseltzie t1_iyqo1xv wrote

  1. Sophomore
  2. Artifact
  3. OneDo
  4. Cafe Los Sueños
  5. Daily Grind - for most affordable that isn’t Dunkin
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bookoocash t1_iyr1gbt wrote

Kitsch over on University Blvd by JHU is a place I recently discovered and we go there often for breakfast sandwiches. Lattes and other drinks are great too. Common Ground is still great and way more convenient being a block away from our home, but Kitsch definitely has an edge on them at least as far as their sandwiches are concerned.

Outside of those two local spots, we really liked Ovenbird.

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ContinentalOp_RG t1_iytavli wrote

Kitsch's sandwiches are excellent. I've only been there for lunch so never had the coffee.

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EdBenner t1_iyqydjp wrote

The Bun Shop for me. Always the best vibes and solid coffee.

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DolemiteGK t1_iyrayyq wrote

One do

Higher Grounds in Highlandtown (Dark Vadar plz)

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wbruce098 t1_iyrqvm2 wrote

High Grounds is my favorite Obi Wan themed coffee shop in Baltimore!

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Bastardcapricorn t1_iyqd1af wrote

Ranking by my usual order of black coffee—

  1. Sophomore
  2. Artifact
  3. Ceremony

Best saturday morning sit around vibes goes to Baby’s on Fire (Mt. Vernon), although Dooby’s beats them for the coffee itself. Neither roasts in house, but the Dooby’s cups always taste fresher.

I question Bun Shop in any of these rankings for coffee. As somebody that moved to Mt. Vernon in their early 20s, obviously I was drawn to Bun Shop first but at some point I realized that better coffee existed elsewhere in the neighborhood and I haven’t been back since.

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lurkmorethanpost t1_iyqspny wrote

Mine are:

  1. Ceremony
  2. Order and Chaos
  3. High Ground
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advptr t1_iyrl2a8 wrote

Zekes should be in this conversation

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brocialism t1_iytf0gd wrote

  1. Los Sueños
  2. Thread
  3. Vent

Pour one out for Spro. Goddamn, I miss their Avenue location.

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monkeycat909 t1_iyrih1m wrote

I dislike On the Hill's coffee. I used to get it regularly and it always, and I mean always, had grounds in the bottom of my cup.

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wbruce098 t1_iyrpwmc wrote

Shout out to Order & Chaos! Their coffee and food are great and the merch is hella fun, too.

I’m also a huge fan of High Grounds, Pie Time, and OneDo.

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-thuytrang- t1_iyrymhb wrote

  1. Koba Cafe SERIOUSLY UNDERRATED
  2. Pitango, and their almond croissants are seriously the best
  3. After's Cafe, their maple latte is sooo good

common ground would be no. 4 though

I typically always get iced vanilla at koba and pitango. If you're an iced chai person Koba and After's seriously make the best in bmore

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filipino_zaddy t1_iys0o1o wrote

I’m new to the city and only had the chance to try two places so far so…

  1. On the Hill Cafe
  2. Ceremony Coffee Roasters
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Proof-Distribution62 t1_iypbewf wrote

The coffee shop in the four seasons - done in when the atlas thing metastasized - was the dopest.

−1

bmorehalfazn t1_iyq3k2a wrote

La mill? Yeah they were pretty great. Lots of good folks worked there. Eff Atlas.

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