The University News

Issue date: 4/21/08 Section: Culture

Media Credit: Laura Katzer Latte art is a popular fixture at coffee houses. Here are some of the most popular coffee shops in Kansas City and how they rate.

Coffee can be made into a special, complex treat with a combination of steam and pressure. It's called espresso. When espresso is combined with frothy, steamed milk, it becomes a new creation altogether, the latte.

It can be fun to rediscover the basics of coffee specialty drinks. The simplicity of these basic drinks is refreshing.

Kansas City is lucky to have a great coffeehouse culture and a large number of coffeehouses that are the non-Starbucks and non-chain variety. There are quite a few of these local coffee houses near the UMKC campus. I decided to go to four local coffeehouses near UMKC and give a brief review of each. I judged them by ordering a double espresso and a latte and surveying the general mood. In the spirit of upcoming finals, I gave each coffeehouse a grade.

What I found was these coffeehouses are low-key and homey. They usually serve a full or partial menu of food items (maybe even homemade). They also serve coffee, which is, of course, the main event.

All of these local coffeehouses are fairly quiet, provide free Wi-Fi and make an effort to provide comfortable seating. This basically makes them very nice places to study for commuter and on-campus students alike. With finals looming overhead, a nice place to sit and study is welcome, and the caffeine helps too.

Oak Street Coffee Shop
6221 Oak St.

This little coffee spot on Oak Street is sweet and friendly. It shares an open-door policy with its neighbors J'adore (a home furnishings shop) and Brookside Antiques. Drinks from Oak Street Coffee travel freely between the adjoining doors of the three shops. It's no surprise this coffee shop has the homey live-in feeling of an antique store. The furniture is a wonderfully used and ragtag collection. Books, magazines and newspapers are scattered accessibly for shop patrons. A variety of kids' toys and books are available for the little ones. Free Wi-Fi is available and there is a lot of space to spread out. The homemade food menu is delicious and the scones are fabulous.

Their espresso was very good. It had a nice head of crema, the toffee-colored coffee foam that sits on top of espresso. The taste was surprisingly mellow and it smelled nice. There was a little bitterness but it was more of an aftertaste than a dominant flavor. The body or thickness was medium to thin. This was the most inexpensive espresso of all the shops. It only cost one dollar.

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