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| - Not possessing any semblance of a sense of direction, it took me a few minutes of pacing Penn and checking Google Maps to find this place, but I shouldn't've worried; this is easily spotted between 40th and 39th Streets on Penn.
The outdoor section, along with a prodigious gravel lot with cars and bicycles, contained only a few people, including one couple chatting with the owner, who, like the rest of the staff, I would later come to find knowledgeable and friendly.
Behind an impressive coffee bar with high-quality grinders and espresso machine, the menu seems to me to naturally fall into three main categories: third wave coffee, bubble tea, and food offerings.
The coffee menu was a traditional espresso café list of offerings, with prices on the cheaper side of coffee shops in Pittsburgh; my cortado was only $2.50. Large bags of Commonplace beans adorn the walls in groups of three or four, and the bean quality and skill of the barista was clearly apparent.
Being peckish as well as in need of a wake-up, I ordered a marinated pork báhn mi sandwich. It was absolutely fabulous: filling, tremendously tasty, spicy, and fresh. I added a little sriracha for an extra wave of spicy-food-endorphins, but I really didn't need any flavor enhancement: the pork was juicy and tender, the vegetables and herbs were fresh, and the bread (from local bakery BreadWorks) was light and crusty. I've had báhn mi at quite a few places in Pittsburgh (from the new Bahn Mi and Ti to the quirky Lili Café in Polish Hill), and I'd rank this very very high on the list.
After polishing off my sandwich and espresso, I poured myself a palate-cleansing glass of water and ordered the one item on the coffee menu that I've never seen before in Pittsburgh: Vietnamese iced coffee, or cà phê sa ?á (literally, iced milk coffee). Redhawk Coffee in Oakland serves "Vietnamese cold brew", sweetened with condensed milk, but the barista helpfully explained to me that this is actually brewed right in front of you in a special contraption not unlike a Frankenstein-like combination of an Aeropress and a pourover.
Hot water drips over compressed coffee grounds into a cortado-glass-like vessel with a small amount of sweetened condensed milk. This process that takes ten or so minutes, making this the perfect drink to enjoy while you're hanging out or spending a few hours working.
The coffee is amazing; just the right amount of sweetness (I'm not really a sugary-drinks person) to complement but not overpower the coffee, which was a little fruity but not acidic at all. A little bit of a process to go through just for iced coffee, but the quality is worth the time it takes; it's not just fancy presentation for no reward.
I spent the next hour or so hanging out in the space; the shop was built from an old motorcycle garage, and they kept the original floors. This place benefits from a level of space customization most coffee shops couldn't dream of: booths have custom dimmers for each overhead light, making it the perfect place to snag for a long-term work session. There's plenty of couch space, too, for curling up with a book or cuddling votre petit(e) ami(e).
It's not as cozy as other coffee shops I frequent, so getting into the productive flow that other places inspire in me took a little while, but visceral reactions to the feel of a place are so individual that I'm not really qualified to review that aspect of the place.
Really, you should come check it out yourself: even if it doesn't become one of your camp-out-and-write-your-screenplay places, it's more than worth an hour of your time to sip some cà phê and chow down on some pork belly.
Really the one thing I didn't try was the bubble tea, but there are so many amazing bubble tea places in Pittsburgh, I'm sure the rest of the offerings here would offset even objectionably bad bubble tea. I've heard good things from other customers (several of whom ordered the green bubble tea before I placed my order, and were very willing to talk it up), so it's definitely on my to-try list.
Five stars for this place, despite only visited once; I'm convinced entirely of its quality.
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