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The Inventive Coffee Shop

In a blog Chris Tingom asks his readers the following question: 

Does your favorite coffee shop reinvent itself constantly?

And he continues: ,,In my mind I’ve begun to classify coffee shops based on how much they care about the craft. Some shops just never improve, no matter how much time goes by. While others, with the help of a core barista or owner continually reinvent themselves.

Those are the shops I care about, the ones that include testing, sampling, refining, learning, and most of all caring about quality. Getting the craft right is important to these shops, even if it means more work.

The best way I can describe this, is that the best shops are reinventing themselves, and they’re never satisfied with the status quo."

Stumptowns pop-up espressobar in Amsterdam (May 2010)

Questioning myself, what would be my defintion of the favorite coffee shop, the answer is more complex than: ,,the best shops are reinventing themselves". From a coffee perspective this may be true. But to me there is more to a shop than the ultimate coffee. There is also the service, the quality of food, WIFI availabilty and the overall feeling of the place. This 'mixed bag' of qualities makes several espresso bars for me 'the best'.

So what's your idea of your favorite coffee shop?