State Street coffee safari

By Jason Haas

Espresso Royale is a longish, narrow chamber that serves fine coffee and Italian sodas. Being a national chain, it also has the worst art. Decent but overpriced munchies, crowded bebop atmosphere at night. Outside seating was still available as of the first week of November, and might be so for a long time. We'll know for sure if we see snowmen holding cups of coffee. And, dont forget, being right next to Challenges, ER is pinball accessible.

Steep & Brew offers a pleasantly dim and extremely cool hangout with what I found to be the best coffee and teas available. They also serve Elliot's fruit juices, Sprecher root beer, coffee and tea accessories, and have gobs of free publications available. Conveniently located across from China Hut, with outdoor seating, and live music Friday and Saturday. Best place to find Madison's assorted lunatics.

Down the hall from The Cat's Meow is Cafe Assisa, offering the niftiest coffee environment around. Good coffees, specialty fruit/vegetable juice drinks, China Cola, great musical variety, wonderful large windows, brightly painted green, orange and yellow chairs: extremely cool. And some of the best artwork in Madson, as it doubles as the Red Oak Gallery. Also featuring a book case, and cool places to lounge, Assisi is the best place to study or hang out in, hands down.

Cafe Leonardo? Really killerbonusfuckinglame. A pathetic attempt to fuse a coffee shop with an ice cream shop, on the corner of West Gilman and State. They blast Z104, have horrendously acidic coffee, terribly overpriced and mass-produced (nicely machine-wrapped) munchies. I abandoned my cup about halfway through and left. Avoid this place at all costs. (This is especially easy, with Assisi right across the street).

At least Ella's Deli serves up nasty coffee without tying to be pretentious schmucks trying to pass the place off for a stimulating coffeehouse environment. But where else can you enjoy your coffee with various processed meats hanging from the ceiling and receding into infinity with the lovely mirrored walls? The coffee's about as much fun as tar, and tastes like it too. The food ain't too great, either.

Victor Allen's Coffee & Tea turned out to be, as I'd suspected, yuppie heaven. Rather bitter coffee that got truly nasty when it grew cold, and highly overpriced munchies. Harsh flourescent lights wreck any sort of atmosphere the place might try to establish. The only funky aspect to it is the men's bathroom, which is shaped rather oddly Ike Nevada.

Final recommendations: Espresso Royale, Steep & Brew, and Cafe Assisi. Coffee is a subjective thing, best left to the individual to decude upon. Your best bet is to find which one of these suits you best and caffinate your heart away.