Flyover Flavor

Location: University City

Overall rating: 5 out of 5

Drink Menu: A short list of staple espresso drinks with an even shorter list of flavored syrups. You can also choose from an assortment of teas.

Food Menu: A little bit of everything — breakfast, lunch, dinner, take-and-reheat meals, bread, and pastries.

Brew Options: Autodrip, cold brew

Most interesting drink pastry: the Winslow's Bar steals the show. Who can resist pecan shortbread smothered in a layer of ganache and topped with caramel?

Espresso Machine: Manual 

Roaster: Sump True Level espresso with a light-to-medium roast; you can also purchase bags of Stringbean, Kaldi's, and Sump coffee in the market

Review — pandemic edition:

Winslow’s Table (formerly Winslow’s Home) has become my favorite coffee shop during the pandemic in large part because of their walkup window and happy hour from 3 pm to close. This $1-off coffee deal has fueled my late-night work for months.

Coffee is not the main focus at Winslow’s, but they take it seriously and consistently serve good drinks. The Sump True Level espresso often has a sweet, citrusy flavor with bright acidity that I recommend drinking straight. In a cappuccino or latte, the milk covers the citrus notes and brightness. It still tastes good, but less interesting. My only beef with the drinks at Winslow’s is with the cappuccino foam. There’s never enough! Even when I ask for extra foam, I end up with a small layer on top and warm milk that’s barely textured below. Interestingly, the lattes usually have nice microfoam and latte art, so it’s a mystery to me why the cappuccino is sometimes off. Still, I think Winslow’s Table has some of the best coffee in the city, great food and pastries, and outstanding service.

Owned by Tara and Michael Gallina, the couple behind nationally renowned Vicia, Winslow’s Table offers the same quality and creativity as its sister restaurant with a more casual vibe. The menu features fresh, local ingredients and the market includes many local farms and small businesses.

Pre-COVID, the space was packed with tables and was bustling every time I went in, especially for weekend brunch. It’s odd to imagine eating elbow to elbow with a stranger now, but it was comfortable in 2019 and the buttermilk pancakes with blueberry compote were worth the noise and close quarters.

In response to the pandemic, Winslow’s Table pivoted a couple times. Like many businesses, they opened a walkup window and switched to only patio seating or carryout. This week they switched things up even more by reopening the inside as a market and bakery with prepared food and small goods from local companies and farms, pastries and bread made in-house, and other merchandise. Their full kitchen is still operating for carryout or patio dining. They’ve always had a small market so it’s not a surprise they would expand this offering now that indoor dining is problematic. It will be interesting to see whether this will be a permanent change or if they will revert back to a restaurant once it’s safer to be in crowds.

Location: CWE

Overall rating: 3 out of 5 (The drinks vary depending on which barista makes them, so sometimes the espresso is bitter or sharp and the milk steamed improperly. When pulled correctly, I give the espresso 5 out of 5.)

Drink Menu: A mix of traditional and Starbucks-style drinks. You can find an espresso macchiato or con panna as well as blended espresso drinks and a long list of syrup flavors. You won’t find third-wave coffeehouse drinks, such as cortados or sidecars on this menu.

Food Menu: Breakfast and lunch options. There is no kitchen, but they offer smoothies, sandwiches, waffles and Barista Eggs, which are steamed on an espresso machine steam wand. I haven't seen this method anywhere else in the city. Because the eggs are steamed, there is no oil or butter used, making them healthier, but also lacking much flavor on their own. Throw some cheddar cheese and salsa on them and they taste pretty good.

Brew Options: Not a lot of variety. They offer toddy cold brew, V60 pour overs and standard autodrip.

Most interesting drink: Iced coconut water americano. It's exactly as it sounds – espresso and coconut water. It's refreshing and richer than a standard iced americano.

Espresso Machine: Manual La Marzocco

Roasting style: Medium

Review — pandemic edition:

There are two reasons to go to Northwest Coffee: they’re open in the evenings (a rarity in St Louis) and have a sizable patio. It’s one of the few coffee shops where I feel comfortable staying for a while to enjoy my drink without fear of breaking social distancing guidelines.

Located in a former auto body shop near the Cortex district, Northwest is set back from the street with a covered walkway to the front door on one side and open gravel yard on the other. Even in cold weather, the patio is comfortable thanks to a couple fire pits and space heaters. The tables are spaced out fairly well, so you can keep away from fellow patrons.

The café doubles as a roastery with a 1957 Probat in the back but still in view of the main seating area. When indoor dining is allowed, roasting days (usually Tuesdays and Fridays) are the best times to visit if you want to watch the process from start to finish. In the fall and winter, the roaster warms the whole building and fills it with the rich, nutty aroma of roasting beans. It’s something to look forward to when stay at home orders lift. In the meantime, you’ll have to enjoy the roasting smell from the patio.

While I love this coffee shop, I'm sad to say the drinks are inconsistent. On my most recent visit, I ordered a double espresso and a caramel latte. The espresso was great – smooth with low acidity and a chocolaty flavor. This is one of the few coffee shops where I can drink the espresso on its own because they do a full city roast, which reduces the acidity and takes out the bite that's common in light-roast coffees. It's a good thing the espresso is good on it's own because the latte was disappointing. The milk was not steamed properly, so instead of microfoam (textured milk with very small bubbles), I got a thin layer of foam on top of hot, thin milk. I asked the barista to remake my drink and requested more foam, but the second latte was exactly the same as the first. The only reason to get steamed milk in an espresso drink is for the foam. If the drink isn't thick and velvety, it's not worth drinking. 

If you’re looking for a nice patio or a late afternoon coffee, this shop is a great option. I recommend getting black drip coffee, a double espresso, or an iced latte.

Overall rating: 3 out of 5

Drink Menu: Wide variety of drinks with an emphasis on flavored lattes, mochas and frappes though you can find more traditional coffeehouse drinks, including traditional cappuccinos and americanos. They also serve coffee cocktails — my favorite is a bourbon and cold brew cocktail. For tea drinkers, they carry Hugo Tea, a Kansas-City-based company.

Food Menu: Breakfast and lunch sandwiches, salads, smoothies, pastries and more.

Brew Options: Pour over, toddy cold brew, nitro cold brew and autodrip.

Most interesting drink: Monk's Head Cappuccino — an extra foamy six-ounce cappuccino that's perfect for foam lovers (hello, that's me!)

Espresso Machine: Manual Victoria Arduino Eagle One

Roasting style: Medium to dark roast under the name Muse, roasted by Picasso's baristas

Review — pandemic edition:

Like many businesses this year, Picasso’s has experimented with ways to adapt to the pandemic. They offered online ordering and curb-side pickup during lockdown and then reopened with limited dine-in seating. They also started selling growlers of some beverages, including cold brew and chai. They’re a great example of creativity in response to challenging times.

"Making uptight people uncomfortable since 2011." This is the sign that greets you before you step into Shameless Grounds, a sex-positive coffee shop located in the Benton Park neighborhood. You must be 18 or over to enter without a legal guardian. As you can imagine, this cafe offers an atmosphere that won't appeal to everyone.

Shameless Grounds sits on the corner of an otherwise residential block. It's set apart from the small houses around it by a bright sign with a heart swirling above a large white mug. When you walk inside, you step into a large open space that looks so much like a living room that it feels like you've invaded someone's personal space. Large bookcases cover one wall and a computer desk with a hutch for a desktop computer, more books, a printer and printer paper stands against another. This little computer station is surrounded by a few beat-up pieces of leather furniture and a collage coffee table covered in interesting clippings. It's straight out of someone's funky home office.

The furniture isn’t the part that stands out the most. The bookshelves hold the shop's human sexuality lending library, which includes books on biology, history, and steamy fiction. The shelves are decorated with plaster molds of vaginas and a few decorated dildos. A poster of two nude women intertwined and open-mouthed hangs on the wall, and the desktop screensaver shuffles through photos of women's bare, greased-up buttocks. A small naked doll is tied up S&M-style and hanging upside down from another shelf. These touches add to the sense that you’ve invaded someone’s intimate space, looking at the items he or she would stash in the closet before inviting anyone over.

This décor fits the mission of Shameless Grounds: to destigmatize sexuality and create a welcoming space for the LGBTQ community. Customers are warned before walking in that this shop is not for the uptight. If you're squeemish about sex, this place isn't for you.

Unfortunately, this shop also isn't for coffee lovers. It uses Chauvin coffee and the quality of the espresso is far below par. To reach the coffee bar, you must walk through the main room, down a narrow hallway to the back of the building, which reflects the mentality of the company: sex first, coffee second. My espresso macchiato had decent foam on top of espresso that tasted burned, ashy, and almost too bitter to drink.

A little controversy can create buzz and help a place stand out from the competition, but, a coffee shop should make coffee a top priority. Coasting on the shock factor or appeal to a niche group isn't enough. Serve damn good coffee while you’re at it!

Unfortunately, the only reason to go to Shameless Grounds is for the sex-positive atmosphere. If you visit, I recommend getting beer or tea – it’s not worth drinking the coffee.