Café restaurants in Washington, DC
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A
Cosi
Get your coffee straight up in the morning, and with a few shots of booze in the evening at this friendly café where the mood is all about mellow lingering. Fresh salads and ciabatta sandwiches keep your stomach happy as you toil away on your laptop or devour the morning's Washington Post. After 16:00 the place serves liquor - choose from alcoholic coffee cocktails and a range of wine, spirits and beer. There are numerous locations around the city.
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B
Sidamo Coffee & Tea
DC is lacking in the cafe department. Yeah, we’ve got Starbucks and some other chains out the wazoo, but indies where you can pound away on wi-fi and smell beans roasting and write books while blustery days go by? Not so much. Sidamo, thankfully, makes up for us in this regard. Owned by an Ethiopian family, this is excellent, organic African coffee, tasty and strong as hell. There’s wi-fi, friendly staff and that right bohemian atmosphere, which, while overplayed in other parts of the world, doesn’t get enough play in the capital. On Sundays at 2pm, the family puts on an Ethiopian coffee ceremony; all customers are invited to participate.
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C
Tryst
This Greenwich Village–style place is a coffeehouse by day, cushy bar bordering on lounge by night. The couches, armchairs and bookshelves, and the light flooding through street-side windows, lure patrons so faithful they probably should pay rent. Sweet alcoholic concoctions flow along with caffeine (sometimes in the same glass), nice complements to the menu of waffles, muffins and cake. It’s a great place to meet up with old friends or make new ones, hence the name.
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D
Cascade Café
Oh, what a lovely place for a bowl of tortellini or a croissant sandwich. Located at the juncture of the wings of the National Gallery of Art, the Cascade offers views of just that: a shimmering, IM Pei–designed artificial waterfall. It’s one of the best coffee stops in any Washington museum. Food is of the soup and sandwich sort, and is available for picnic wrap if you’d like to eat outdoors.
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E
Misha’s Coffee Roaster
Sip a lovely latte next to jars of strong-smelling beans imported from Indonesia and Ethiopia, bang out your play on your laptop (or procrastinate with the free wi-fi), check out the cute nerds at the other tables and reach caffeinated Nirvana at this very hip hangout.
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F
Pavilion Café
Set amid the rambling sylvan serenity of the Sculpture Garden of the National Gallery of Art, this pasta- and panini-style place makes for a green dream on spring days; from late May to October, free jazz concerts enrich the evening every Friday.
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G
Sparky's
There's admittedly a shortage of good coffee houses in DC, but Sparky's is great: Macbook-toting yuppies, an upstairs game room with an Atari 2600 (!) and to top it off: Best. Chai. Latte. Ever.
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H
Full Circle Café
Linger on the breezy patio and people watch while downing a beer or two. The menu is loaded with soups, salads and sandwiches.
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