Minneapolis, Minnesota

The best coffee in Minneapolis

Seven Minneapolis roasters and cafés across Northeast and Uptown.

7 entries · verified August 2026

Minneapolis has one of the deepest specialty scenes in the Midwest, with serious in-city roasters rather than cafés importing someone else's beans: Dogwood, Spyhouse, Five Watt, UP Coffee and Matchbox all roast what they serve, which is unusual density for a city this size.

Northeast is the centre of gravity and where most of the roasteries actually are, dense enough to walk between Dogwood, Matchbox and UP Coffee in an afternoon. Uptown is the more idiosyncratic end: Thesis removed the WiFi and the outlets on purpose to keep laptops out, and Mosaic runs the kind of inventive espresso-and-citrus drinks that wouldn't work as a Northeast roastery's house menu.

Price is worth flagging honestly since it comes up across multiple reviews: this is not the cheapest city on this site for a daily coffee, with several shops routinely running $7 or more for a specialty drink.

  1. Dogwood Coffee

    Northeast

    The Northeast café shares space with the roastery, so the roasting programme is the visit. One of the city's oldest third-wave roasters, dating to 2010. Reviewers single out the cappuccinos and a collaboration with pastry chef Marc Heu that puts cronuts on the counter; the room has indoor and outdoor seating plus a ping-pong table, and service can slow down at peak hours.

    1209 Tyler St NE, Minneapolis, MN 55413 · Website

  2. Spyhouse Coffee Roasters

    Six shops across Minneapolis and St Paul: Uptown, Downtown, Whittier, North Loop and Northeast. The most reliable name in the city, and reviewers describe the vibe as "Minneapolis concentrate," balancing a hip room with a genuinely warm one. The one recurring gripe is price, with drinks routinely running $7 and up.

    2451 Nicollet Ave S, Minneapolis, MN 55404 · Website

  3. Five Watt Coffee

    Specialty drinks built with the precision and creativity of a good cocktail bar, over a genuinely good roasting base. The Big Easy (cold press, chicory, nutmeg syrup, black walnut bitters and cream) and the Kingfield location's namesake drink both get named repeatedly in reviews; multiple locations across the city run the same program consistently.

    Order: the Big Easy

    3745 Nicollet Ave S, Minneapolis, MN 55409 · Website

  4. Matchbox Coffee

    Northeast

    Collectively owned and operated since 2003, composting nearly all of its waste. Widely held to make the best cold press in the city, and reviewers mention actual conversations with the co-op owners behind the counter rather than just a transaction. No dedicated website; the TripAdvisor listing is the most reliable public record.

    Order: the cold press

    1306 2nd St NE, Minneapolis, MN 55413 · Website

  5. UP Coffee Roasters

    Northeast

    Roaster-café with the best service in the neighbourhood and a room worth sitting in. Started in 1993 as a training facility and showroom before opening to the public; roasts on-site Monday through Friday, and the London Fog and horchata latte both get repeat mentions.

    1901 Traffic St NE, Minneapolis, MN 55413 · Website

  6. Thesis Coffee

    Uptown

    A slow coffee bar with no WiFi and no plugs. That is the concept, and it produces the most focused drinking experience in the city: a 1,000-square-foot room of wood, concrete and metal, records on the stereo instead of a playlist. The Miso Tired (miso caramel latte) is the drink reviewers keep bringing up.

    Order: the Miso Tired

    3142 Hennepin Ave, Minneapolis, MN 55408 · Website

  7. Mosaic Coffee

    Uptown

    Communal by design, with more inventive espresso drinks than most of Uptown. The Golden Hour latte and an espresso-and-orange-juice "Alarm Clock" both come up often in reviews, in a big-windowed room reviewers describe as worth sitting in rather than rushing through. Sunday mornings run loud.

    3040 Hennepin Ave, Minneapolis, MN 55408 · Website