What is the best coffee shop in Milwaukee?

Choose by what you want. Discourse downtown and Blue Hour on the East Side are the picks for the coffee itself, Colectivo in Bay View and Likewise in the Third Ward are best for working, and Colectivo on the Lakefront has the best view.

Which Milwaukee coffee shops are good for working?

Colectivo in Bay View has two floors of tables, Likewise on Erie Street in the Third Ward has plenty of seating, and Fiddleheads in the BMO Tower downtown is built for a working day.

Which Milwaukee coffee shops are open late?

Most close by mid-afternoon. Dream Lab in Walker's Point stays social into the evening, Rochambo on Brady Street has a bar, and Anodyne in Bay View hosts evening shows.

Is Colectivo from Milwaukee?

Yes. Colectivo started in Milwaukee in 1993 under the name Alterra and took the Colectivo name in 2013. It roasts in the city and runs cafés across the area.

Where can I get coffee near the lakefront?

Colectivo on the Lakefront, in the 1888 flushing station on N Lincoln Memorial Dr, sits across from the lake and the Oak Leaf Trail, a short walk from McKinley and Bradford beaches.

Are there coffee shops in the Third Ward?

Yes. Likewise Coffee on E Erie St and Valentine Coffee Roasters on N Milwaukee St are both in the Historic Third Ward.

Milwaukee Coffee Shops by Neighborhood

Milwaukee roasts its own. Three of the coffee companies you will see all over town, Colectivo, Stone Creek and Anodyne, started here in the 1990s, and the city's independent Milwaukee coffee shops have grown up around them in every neighborhood.

That makes coffee one of the easiest things to plan around. Wherever you will be, downtown, the Third Ward, Walker's Point, the East Side or Bay View, there is a good cup within a few blocks. Here they are by neighborhood, with a note at the end on where to work and what stays open late.

The Milwaukee roasters

The three big local roasters are Colectivo, Stone Creek and Anodyne. Each runs several cafés and sells its beans across the region, and knowing them makes the rest of the city's coffee easier to read.

Colectivo began in 1993 under the name Alterra and took its current name in 2013. It is the one you will see most, with cafés from the lakefront to Bay View, often in old buildings it has restored.

Stone Creek also dates to the 1990s. Its roastery and flagship café sit in a former factory on the western edge of downtown, with a giant coffee cup on the building that you can spot from the freeway.

Anodyne is the smallest of the three and the most Bay View in spirit, with a roastery café on Kinnickinnic Avenue that doubles as a small music room in the evenings.

Stone Creek Coffee - Factory Café

Stone Creek's Factory Cafe at 422 N 5th St is the company's roastery and headquarters, and the café shares the building with the roasting floor, so the smell of coffee reaches the sidewalk.

It is the best place in the city to understand how local coffee gets made. The staff will talk beans with anyone who asks, and the bags on the shelf are as fresh as they come.

Downtown

Downtown's best coffee is on Broadway and Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, with a couple of good options tucked into office towers.

Discourse Coffee | Downtown

Discourse Coffee at 1016 N Broadway is the craft-coffee pick downtown. Its drinks come with names and ideas behind them, like Moonwater, Motörhead and Flora, built from unusual flavor combinations that somehow balance.

It is a small, bright room, good for a quick coffee and a look at the day's plan rather than a long work session.

Canary Coffee Bar

Canary Coffee Bar at 720 N Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Dr is known for its seasonal lattes, flavors like cherry cola, pineapple caramel and root beer, plus a selection of specialty teas.

It sits west of the river, a few blocks from the Public Museum, handy for a break between downtown sights.

In the lobby of the BMO Tower on Water Street, Fiddleheads Coffee is the roaster's first downtown café, built for a working day with soft seating and quiet corners.

On Jackson Street, Bear & Bean pairs coffee, including an iced churro latte, with breakfast tacos and burritos, which makes it the downtown stop for a real breakfast.

Downtown coffee pairs well with a day on foot, and downtown Milwaukee's sights start within a few blocks of each of these.

The Historic Third Ward

The Third Ward has two excellent coffee stops a few blocks apart: Likewise on Erie Street and Valentine on Milwaukee Street.

Likewise Coffee - Milwaukee

Likewise Coffee at 232 E Erie St serves fair trade, organic coffee in a bright, contemporary room with plenty of seating, close to the art school and the river.

It is one of the better places in the city to settle in for a couple of hours, with tables that suit a laptop and a steady, calm crowd.

At the south end of the district, Valentine Coffee Roasters roasts small batches and serves them in a spare café on Milwaukee Street, the pick for a careful pour-over.

Both make a good start to a morning in the Third Ward, before the Public Market and the galleries open.

Walker's Point

Walker's Point has the most interesting cluster of cafés in the city, with Yemeni, Italian and late-night spots within a few blocks of each other.

The roots of Azal Coffee, on South 1st Street, are in Yemen, where coffee trading began, and serves ethically sourced beans with precise brewing and sweets on the side.

On South 2nd Street, Vendetta Coffee Bar does Italian-inspired espresso with pastries shipped from Italy, and it has outdoor seating for warm mornings.

For the evening, Dream Lab on South 3rd Street serves specialty coffee alongside a hookah menu and local art, a relaxed room that stays social late.

Discourse has a second café in the Radio Milwaukee building on South Barclay Street, Discourse at Radio Milwaukee, open daily from 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The building is home to 88Nine Radio Milwaukee, the city's public music station, so the café often has a soundtrack worth listening to.

Coffee here leads naturally into lunch, and the best restaurants in the Walker's Point neighborhood sit on the same blocks.

The East Side and Brady Street

The East Side's cafés sit around the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and along Brady Street, and they are some of the most relaxed in the city.

Blue Hour Coffee™

Blue Hour Coffee at 2410 N Murray Ave serves single-origin espresso, ceremonial-grade matcha from Wazuka in Japan and house-made syrups, in a small neighborhood room.

It is the East Side's best cup for people who care about the details, and a good stop on the way to Lake Park.

Roast Coffee Company

Roast Coffee Company at 2132 E Locust St is a laid-back coffeehouse in art-lined brick rooms, serving baked goods and lunch alongside its coffee.

It feels like a neighborhood living room, the place students and locals settle into for an afternoon.

On Brady itself, organic coffee has been poured at Rochambo Coffee & Tea House since 1995, along with a long list of loose-leaf teas, with worn booths and big windows onto the street.

Rochambo is one stop on a longer walk down Brady Street on the East Side, with its Italian bakeries a block or two away.

Bay View

Bay View has more good coffee per block than anywhere else in Milwaukee, most of it on Kinnickinnic Avenue.

Colectivo Coffee Bay View

Colectivo's Bay View café at 2301 S Kinnickinnic Ave is a big, two-story room with plenty of tables, locally roasted coffee and light food.

It is the neighborhood's default place to work on a laptop, and the upstairs is usually quieter than the counter below.

Anodyne Coffee Roasting Co. | Bay View

Anodyne Coffee Roasting Co. at 2920 S Kinnickinnic Ave is the Bay View roastery café, with the roaster on site and a back room that hosts shows.

Come in the morning for coffee, and look at the event calendar before you leave, when the same room becomes one of the neighborhood's music venues.

Further down KK at 3001 S Kinnickinnic Ave, Axolotl Café brings Mexican flavors to brunch, with chilaquiles, horchata pancakes and specialty coffee drinks.

At the corner of Greeley and Deer, Small Change is half hair salon, half coffee bar, serving drinks and small bites.

For a long breakfast, Hi-Fi Cafe on KK serves egg dishes, sandwiches and build-your-own scrambles in a room full of quirky decor.

A coffee crawl is one of the best ways to see the Bay View neighborhood, since the cafés sit between its bakeries, shops and bars.

The south side

On South 13th Street, Brew-Jas Coffee House serves coffee flights and drinks like the Como La Flor iced latte, with donuts, churros and breakfast egg rolls.

Out on the west side, Vennture Brew Co on W North Ave roasts coffee and brews beer under one roof, which makes it the coffee shop that becomes a taproom by evening.

Coffee with a lake view

The best coffee view in the city is at Colectivo's lakefront café, in the 1888 Milwaukee River Flushing Station across Lincoln Memorial Drive from the lake.

The brick building once pumped lake water into the river. Today the patio at Colectivo on the Lakefront looks out at the water and the Oak Leaf Trail.

It is also the natural start for a morning on the sand, since the lakefront beaches begin at McKinley and Bradford a short walk north.

Tea and matcha

Milwaukee's coffee shops take tea more seriously than most. Rochambo on Brady Street keeps one of the longest loose-leaf lists in the city, with black, green and herbal teas sold by the cup or the ounce.

For matcha, Blue Hour on Murray Avenue uses ceremonial-grade tea from Wazuka, a growing region near Kyoto, and whisks it to order. Canary downtown adds specialty teas to its seasonal menu, and most of the roaster cafés carry a small, well-chosen tea list alongside the coffee.

Coffee and something sweet

A few of Milwaukee's best pastries sit a short walk from its best coffee. On Brady Street, Peter Sciortino Bakery has sold cannoli and Italian cookies since 1947, a block from Rochambo.

In the Third Ward, the bakers at the market hall on Water Street are a few minutes from Likewise and Valentine, and Vendetta in Walker's Point brings its pastries in from Italy. In Bay View, KK Avenue's cafés sit between the neighborhood's bakeries, so a coffee there rarely comes without something to go with it.

Downtown, Bear & Bean's breakfast tacos and burritos make the case for coffee with something savory instead, a better start than a pastry before a long day of walking.

Taking beans home

All three local roasters sell whole-bean bags at their cafés, and Colectivo and Stone Creek also sell in grocery stores around Wisconsin. The Stone Creek Factory Cafe is the place to buy the freshest bag, since it is roasted in the same building.

Ask the staff what came off the roaster most recently. A bag roasted within the week tastes noticeably brighter than one that has sat on a shelf, and every café here will tell you the roast date if it is not printed on the bag.

A coffee crawl

Coffee is the cheapest way to see Milwaukee's neighborhoods, and the cafés sit close enough to walk or ride between.

Downtown to Walker's Point. Start at Discourse on Broadway, walk south through the Third Ward to Likewise or Valentine, then cross the river into Walker's Point for Vendetta and Azal. It is about two miles, flat, and passes the Public Market on the way.

Bay View on KK. Colectivo at the north end of Kinnickinnic Avenue, Anodyne further south, and Axolotl near the end for brunch. It is one long street, and there are bakeries between them if you want something to eat.

East Side. Rochambo on Brady, then north to Blue Hour on Murray and Roast on Locust. Finish in Lake Park on the bluff, a short walk east of Blue Hour, with a coffee in hand and the lake below you.

Where to work, and what stays open late

Best for a laptop. Colectivo in Bay View, with its two floors of tables, and Likewise in the Third Ward are the easiest places to settle in. Fiddleheads in the BMO Tower is built for a working day downtown, and Roast on Locust Street suits a long afternoon.

Best for the coffee itself. Discourse downtown, Valentine in the Third Ward, Blue Hour on the East Side and Azal in Walker's Point are the four to visit if the cup matters most.

Open late. Most Milwaukee cafés close in mid-afternoon. For an evening coffee, Dream Lab in Walker's Point stays social into the night, Rochambo on Brady has a bar, and Anodyne in Bay View runs evening shows.

With breakfast. Bear & Bean downtown, Axolotl and Hi-Fi in Bay View, and Brew-Jas on the south side serve real food alongside the coffee.

For the view. Colectivo on the Lakefront, with its patio across from the lake, is the one to choose on a clear morning.