2 Pittsburgh spots among Food & Wine’s best coffee shops in America

Two Pittsburgh coffee shops were recognized by a national magazine as being among the best in the United States.

Commonplace Coffee on the North Side and Espresso a Mano in Lawrenceville are included in Food & Wine’s best coffee shops in America list for 2019. The survey posted Nov. 1.

Reporter David Landsel spent two years doing on-the-ground research and rounded up “nearly 100 of the most essential cafes, coffee shops, and espresso bars in the United States.”

Of Commonplace Coffee, he said, “Pittsburgh is a coffee town, to say the least, and this is one of the city’s best roasters, but even if that weren’t the case, their relentlessly charming Buena Vista Street cafe, deep into the North Side’s magnificently-named Mexican War Streets neighborhood, is one of the city’s finest cafes.”

Commonplace Coffee has five locations in Pittsburgh, including Squirrel Hill, Point Breeze and Garfield neighborhoods, and three in Indiana, Pa., where it got started. A Pittsburgh headquarters for roasting and wholesale business was established on Washington Boulevard in Lincoln-Lemington.

Espresso a Mano was described by Landsel like this: “Opened in 2009 in now very happening Lawrenceville, this shop feels like Seattle, but with that classic Pittsburgh warmth that just comes built-in, they don’t even have to try. The coffees are very up to date, but the prices are positively retro. After a decade, as important as ever.”

Espresso a Mano, located on Butler Street, has been making coffee for 10 years.

Food & Wine ranked Sey Coffee in Brooklyn, N.Y., as its top coffee spot in the country.

Pennsylvania was well represented on the list. Passenger Coffee in Lancaster, Elementary Coffee Co. in Harrisburg, and Herman’s Coffee in Philadelphia also made the top 100.