Back to the Grind: 5 More Top Coffee Shops around the World

The quest for the perfect espresso continues as we build on our original top 5 list of the best coffee shops around the world with five more of the best places we've found for a great coffee.


Mecca Coffee, Sydney
67 King Street (and other locations), +612 9299 8828, www.meccaespresso.com
As usual, we spent our first few days in a new city searching out the best espresso in town. Mecca is the best in Sydney in our humble but well-caffeinated opinion.

Victrola, Seattle
411 15th Avenue E (and other locations), www.victrolacoffee.com
Seattle takes its coffee seriously and has landed on the top of both of our charts.  Victrola is the latest and greatest in the land of serious coffee drinkers. It's dark, strong coffee, not for the faint of heart, but always a perfect cuppa joe.

Photo courtesy of Victrola Coffee

Princi, London
135 Wardour Street, +44 020 7478 8888, http://www.princi.co.uk/
Most importantly, the coffee is excellent, but if you look for a good pastry to go along with it, this is the place for you.  Finding a great coffee place in London took ages, but it was well worth the search.

Blue Bottle, San Francisco

Mint Plaza, 66 Mint Street, San Francisco, 510-653-3394, info@bluebottlecoffee.net
Blue Bottle is where I want to go every morning for a double latte and breakfast.  And I always end up walking out with a bag of anise cookies, some granola, another latte...

Photo from Blue Bottle Coffee

Pasticceria Bastianello, Milan
Via Borgogna, 5, http://www.bastianello.com/en
I'm always amazed that even the tiniest, least decorative caffes in Italy have excellent coffee.  Well, Pasticceria Bastianello is the opposite...ornate and formal but still, a perfect cappuccino.  And the pastries are almost too pretty to eat.

 
Best to our fellow coffee drinkers,
30-something Travel