For me, a good coffee shop or sidewalk café is key to living happily: a comfortable spot to get caffeinated, to read, work, and meet people, preferably with good (by which I mean impressively bad) art-for-sale on the walls and enough traffic (inside and out) for good people watching. New Orleans’ Café du Monde is pretty much the ultimate example in my mind, though DC’s L’Enfant does pretty well. Atlanta’s café selection is, unfortunately, a study in disunity.
The coffee at San Francisco Coffee Roasting Co. in Virginia Highlands is really good – rich, hot, and not all burned like it’s been there too long or has been over-roasted to generic Starbucksness – but that thing on my plate was not a scone, by any definition. It was a biscuit which, in addition to overcooking it, someone has shoved a great deal of refined sugar and a small handful of sulfury currants. It’s mostly too dark in the large, otherwise comfortable shop to read happily, but the jazz standards, while uninspired and generic, are piped in at a volume which allows enjoyment but does not interfere with conversation. The patio out back is small and fine enough, except the view is of a parking lot. My large iced coffee was about $2.00.
Decatur’s Java Monkey has a few comfy chairs, some slightly awkward bar and counter seating, and lots of tables that could do with some de-wobblifying. It also has the nicest patio of anyplace I’ve been down here. The coffee’s pretty good – all fair-trade and often organic for those in to such things – and the food is on the better side, with tasty paninis and fair hummus and tapenade. They also have wine and beer, which helps. The people-watching is pretty good here, as is the eavesdropping. The downside, which keeps me from Java Monkey rather more than I’d like, is that every night seems to be open mic night.
I’m all for supporting local artists and such, but there is only so amateur slam poetry one’s mind can handle. The same would go, I suppose, for professional slam poetry, should such a horror exist. Plus, open mic night is LOUD: it’s not the cheering or the moderate extra crowd, but the bloody mic is turned up all the way and the performers (especially, but not exclusively, the slam poets) tend to shout. This makes working, reading, and often conversing rather impossible.
Outwrite has geography, and books. The coffee is atrocious, but the tea is pretty good and enough sugar makes the espresso passable, so it’s easy to maintain your buzz while watching the scenery strut down 10th street. Seating is limited inside, but enough of the patrons are sufficiently friendly that sharing tables is a norm, which is helpful not only in comfort but also in learning all about that hot blonde walking by on the arm of a much older (and…homelier…) gentle(?)man. Sadly, outdoor seating is a no-go: the ‘patio’ is a nine-by-four-foot deck occupied by dedicated smokers and those willing to shout over the too-loud music. Inside, the music isn’t too loud, but it is often crap.

Finally: the Majestic. Not a coffeeshop but a diner, with crap coffee and greasy food and all manner of sketchiness, it’s comfortable enough for late night reading or to take that cute boy who’s been chatting you up for the last four hours at Outwrite, after that’s closed and you’re not ready to say goodnight just yet. It’s open after midnight, as so few Atlanta institutions are.
Java Monkey’s great during times when it’s not a performance space, but Outwrite is my favorite for sitting and reading and for socializing (plus it’s a bookstore, which adds a certain something of its own), and San Francisco is just a walk-by for good coffee. If Atlanta wants to grow into a proper city, it’s going to need a few (or a few dozen) proper independent coffeeshops/cafés, or at least some better-appointed Caribou Coffees or (shudder to think) Starbuxae.
My demands: a large (but not sprawling, Atlanta has enough of that) place, preferably with a nice patio, better-than-Starbucks (or, ideall, actually good) coffee, good snacks/food, and free Wifi. Books and magazines would be nice too – and I mean books, not bestsellers, and magazines that are less than 25% ads, not just Cosmo. Oh, and it should be open well past midnight.
San Francisco Coffee Roasting Co.
1192 N Highland Ave
Atlanta, GA 30306
Java Monkey
205 E Ponce De Leon Ave # 5
Decatur, GA 30030
(404) 378-5002
Outwrite Bookstore & Coffeehouse
991 Piedmont Avenue
Atlanta, GA 30309
Tel: 404-607-0082
The Majestic Diner
1031 Ponce De Leon Ave NE
Atlanta, GA
30306-4215
Phone: (404) 875-0276