A Cleveland coffee journal
One couple. One new coffee shop a week. Every honest sip.
We’re Sarah and Joe. After we got married, we started visiting a different Cleveland-area coffee shop every week and comparing notes after the first sip. 37 shops later, here’s everything we’ve learned — scored, ranked, and occasionally roasted.
37
shops reviewed
3+
years of Saturdays
40
points on the scorecard
Our Top 5 in Taste
The shops we keep coming back to — the shortlist we hand to anyone who asks.
The Scoreboard
Every shop we’ve scored, out of 40 points across eight categories — from how the coffee tastes to whether you can actually find parking and get work done. Revisits get re-scored and averaged.
1  Lekko | 35 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 5 | Lekko — Accessibility & Convenience 3/5 Parking anywhere downtown Cleveland can be tough, but especially on tight streets. There is short term parking for free in front of the store, as well as on the tight side street, but especially during peak hours these are taken. The paid lot behind the store can also be used - but is also quite tight. | 4 | 4 | 5 |
2  Atmos Coffee | 34 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 5 | Atmos Coffee — Accessibility & Convenience 2/5 Parking is terrible. Normally have to do a couple of circles to find a spot | 4 | 5 | 5 |
3  Roasted | 34 | 4 | Roasted — Coffee 5/5 Smooth with none of the heartburn acidic coffee usually brings — one of the few shops we'd buy beans from. | 5 | 4 | Roasted — Accessibility & Convenience 3/5 Street parking only in Tremont — there's usually a spot out front, but it's not guaranteed. | 4 | 4 | 5 |
4  Ready Set! Coffee
×2 | 33.5 | 4 | 4.5 | Ready Set! Coffee — Seating 4/5
| 4.5 | Ready Set! Coffee — Accessibility & Convenience 3.5/5
| 3.5 | 4.5 | Ready Set! Coffee — Service 5/5
|
5  Coffee Therapy | 33 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
6  Green Goat Cafe | 32 | 4 | 3 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 4 |
7  Bites Cafe | 30 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 4 |
8  Dahlia Coffee Co | 30 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 2 | 5 |
9  The Grind | 30 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 4 |
10  The 27 Club | 29 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 5 |
11  Civilization | 28 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 4 |
12  Koffie Cafe | 28 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 5 |
13  Rising Star Coffee Roasters | 28 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 5 |
14  Revive Cafe | 27 | 4 | 1 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 |
Tap a column to re-sort. Categories are scored 1–5 per visit; shops with a ×n badge show the average of their scored visits. Darker caramel = higher score. A score with a dot has a note — tap it to see why.
Before the scorecard
We reviewed these 23 shops without our 40-point scorecard — some from our first year before we invented it, a few newer spots we haven't scored yet. The write-ups are still worth a read.
-
Love Coffee House -
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Rise & Grind Cafe -
Coffee Club -
The Rebel Reserve -
The Blue Café -
Heartwood Coffee Roasters -
The Judith -
Phoenix Coffee Company -
Cool Beans (Medina) -
Caffeine -
Index Coffee and Books -
Edda Coffee Roasters -
Lionheart Coffee -
The Daily -
Goodkind Coffee -
Scoot! Cold Brewed Coffee -
The Copper Moon -
The Loop -
The Hive Cle and Milk+Honey -
5 Points Coffee and Tea -
Brewella’s -
Metropolitan Coffee -
Solstice Roasters
Latest reviews
Fresh off the saucer — our most recent visits.
36/40 Ready Set! Coffee
August 13, 2026
34/40 Atmos Coffee
August 5, 2026
Love Coffee House
May 17, 2025
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Rise & Grind Cafe
February 1, 2025
Coffee Club
January 4, 2025
The Rebel Reserve
December 7, 2024
The Blue Café
September 28, 2024
30/40 The Grind
July 13, 2024
32/40 Green Goat Cafe
June 15, 2024
About us
My husband and I started a tradition after we got married: to visit coffee shops in the greater Cleveland area. Each week, I would find a random coffee shop and we would go there to share our opinions with each other after the first sip. The first coffee shop that we went to was called Coffee Coffee Coffee, and it would be in our top 5, but sadly went out of business early in 2023.
So, now we want to provide an educational site about coffee in the Cleveland area for people like us who want to know: Does this place have good parking? Is this a good place to get work done? Is the coffee good?
Our Plants
Every good coffee shop has plants. We hold ourselves to the same standard, with mixed results.
Keith
- Watch out for Keith
- Breed: Spineless (sorry) Yucca
- Very close to being killed by our cat Sebastian
Geoffrey (RIP)
- He comes from money
- Breed: Pachira Aquatica (say that 10 times fast)
- Killed in cold blood by our cat Sebastian
What makes a good coffee shop?
Plants, exposed wood, local art — and occasionally a decorative bike. We wrote down the formula.