What’s in a coffee shop name? In researching this particular list, I found several common tropes. For one thing, the world of coffee shop names has lots of extraneous ‘z’s. There were the good (Ugly Mug has a great ring to it, and made the list), the bad and the ugly in terms of plays on words (Bean Around the World, Crumb Together, Bean Me Up, too many Human Beans to count—make your own judgments). Animals were popular—The Wandering Goose, Mocha Moose, Leopard Lattes, Bird on a Wire and Frog’s Fix are all out there. I found some great taglines—“World Domination Through Responsible Caffeination” (Hammerhead Coffee Roasters) being my favorite. But the following were my top ten.
10 (tie) – Ugly Mug Café / Ugly Mug Coffeehouse: Neither the mugs at the University District café in Seattle nor the ones at the Southeast Portland establishment of the same name are ugly—both cute, in fact—but the name is a great play on words in any city and has such an attractive ring to it. || 1409 Northeast 43rd Street, Seattle / 8017 Southeast 13th Avenue, Portland
9 – Little Cups & Grownups: An aptly-named shop for parents who’d rather sit and enjoy their coffee while the kids play nearby than worry about keeping their children quiet in a traditional coffee shop. || 3000 Southeast 164th Avenue, Vancouver, WA
8 – Blaq Sheep Fine Coffee & Grazing House: As Blaq Sheep contends, “Either you are one or you know one.” || 5607 Dunbar Street, Vancouver
7 – Interactivity Board Game Café: Descriptively and memorably named, the best thing about Interactivity is that it just plain sounds fun. || 723 Yates Street, Victoria, BC
6 – Space Monkey Coffee: The compellingly-named Space Monkey merits a trip to Southeast Portland just to see what’s going on here (art and borscht are only a couple of the things). || 5511 Southeast 72nd Avenue, Portland
5 – Nelson the Seagull: Not strictly a coffee shop but a bakery as well, the seagull part refers to the option of ordering freshly-baked bread at the Gastown breakfast-and-bruncherie. As for Nelson specifically, I’d like to meet him. || 315 Carrall Street, Vancouver
4 – Bedlam Coffee: Bedlam wins points for accuracy—the inside is decorated with more odds and ends on the walls, atop shelves, and suspended from the ceiling than you could possibly hope to look at over a for-here latte, or even two. || 2231 Second Avenue, Seattle
3 – Taming of the Brew: Its affiliate, Chatterbox Coffee, caught my eye first for its powerful “x” at the end of the name coupled with a satisfying rhythm and touch of alliteration, but the Shakespeare reference wins out. Honestly, sometimes the brew does have to be tamed. || 530 Southwest 205th Avenue, Beaverton, OR
2 – McCafferty’s, A Coffee House, Etc.: Yes, it’s all over the place, but something about this roastery’s name phrasing draws you in. What is the Etc.? || 408 Cushman Street, Fairbanks, AL
1 – Ghost Town Coffee Roasters: It’s unique and has a ring to it, but Ghost Town made #1 for foregoing their original, nondescript name – Crema Roasters – and adopting a more unique identity that “embraced our Montana heritage.” || 404 East Bryant Street, Bozeman, MONT
