Boxcar Coffee Roasters is one of the best coffee shops in Denver. The flagship Sunnyside location provides a quiet getaway in an artsy, colorful space with a large patio. Whether you’re downtown in the Dairy Block development or at their locations on Tennyson Street and North Broadway, you’ll experience some of the best coffee Denver has to offer. Go Home.
Huckleberry Roasters
Another contender for the best coffee shops in Denver is Huckleberry Roasters. Known for its community impact as a craft coffeehouse and apprenticeship, this nonprofit shop in Elyria Swansea also boasts a second location in Globeville.
Prodigy Coffee House
Billing itself as a “craft coffeehouse and apprenticeship,” this Elyria Swansea nonprofit shop (with a second location in Globeville) mentors young adults from the surrounding neighborhoods in the art and business of the barista. When they’re not availing themselves of the drive-thru, regulars make themselves at home in the airy, cheery space over berry lattes, white chocolate mochas, or nitro cold brews and perhaps a waffle or breakfast torta. Feel-good vibes abound.
Dandy Lion Coffee
How’s this for something different: a combination coffee and plant shop complete with an indoor greenhouse. Come for the Vietnamese coffee — chicory cold brew with condensed milk — or iced chai with toffee-nut and macadamia milk; stay for the free horticultural therapy (or purchase some foliage to go).
Rivers and Roads Coffee
This community-driven Clayton shop (with a second location in Curtis Park) does everything in-house, from roasting to baking to syrup making. While it takes its coffee seriously, it also takes fun seriously — which means the crew here is as happy to pour its guests vanilla-orange chai or chili-spiked hot chocolate with marshmallows as it is cortados to go with their loaded breakfast fries or apple-butter crumble bars.
Blue Sparrow Coffee
Blessed with courtyard and rooftop seating (as well as a satellite location on Platte Street), this bright yet intimate Certifiably Green cafe in RiNo features rotating American and international roasters in the espresso drinks and specialty coffees it lists in script on a large scroll of packing paper hung behind the counter — including Ireland’s Root & Branch and South Carolina’s JUNTO — while sourcing its pastries from nearby Hearth Bakery.