Best Coffee Shop for a Cause 2024 | Prodigy Coffeehouse | Best of Denver® | Best Restaurants, Bars, Clubs, Music and Stores in Denver | Westword
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Best Coffee Shop for a Cause

Prodigy Coffeehouse

Chelsea Keeney

Prodigy is a social enterprise cafe that opened its doors in 2017 in northeast Denver inside a former garage. It employs young people between the ages of 18 and 24 through its paid apprenticeship program, which offers hands-on job training and builds the skills needed to become confident leaders not just at work, but at home and in the community. In 2022, it added a second location in Globeville, increasing its ability to support young adults. Both shops are inviting spaces to visit — and that cup of coffee will taste even better knowing you're supporting a bigger mission.

Best Coffee Shop and Bar Combo

Queens Eleven

With the early-morning hours of a coffee shop and late-night hours of a bar, Queens Eleven is a tucked-away treasure in RiNo. It's located on the main floor of a high-rise inside a new build on a busy block, so the entrance to the quaint cafe is easy to miss. Stepping in off the street feels like walking through Alice's looking glass and into a shop that gives off dark, speakeasy vibes. The daytime menu is simple and straightforward — Strava coffee drinks, Dis Burritos, pastries from Rebel Bread, and grilled cheese sandwiches that pair well with the cocktail menu. An $8 happy hour espresso martini bridges the gap between daytime work sessions and evening conversations and cocktails, and Queens Eleven delivers on both fronts.

Best Gluten-Free Pastries

Rivers and Roads Coffee

Danielle Krolewicz

Finding gluten-free sweets in the Mile High City can be a hassle, especially for those with a serious intolerance. Rivers and Roads Coffee is a fully gluten-free facility, whipping up treats that are safe for all. The shop rotates a wide range of pastries, from scones and biscuits to muffins and cookies in flavors like peanut butter chocolate, orange cranberry and vanilla latte. If you want to try gluten-free baking at home, mixes for muffins, cornbread, brownies and more are available for purchase. The Rivers and Roads website also lists recipes that utilize the shop's baking mixes to create a variety of treats.

Best Chocolate Chip Cookie

Port Side

Port Side is a breakfast and coffee haven in the shipping containers that also house Topo Designs and Cart-Driver in RiNo. Since opening in 2016, it's drawn fans for its coffee program, rotating breakfast sandwiches and Instagram-worthy vegan avocado toast. But the breakout star is the dark chocolate sea salt cookie. This sweet treat somehow always tastes fresh from the oven, with a melty, gooey center and a perfect crisp around the edges. Is it the high-quality ingredients, the technique, or the perfect dash of coarse sea salt that makes these our favorite? We don't know, but we'll keep eating them until we've cracked the code.

Best Specialty Coffee Drink

Moonflower Coffee

This coffee cart that recently moved into a permanent home at Full Tank Food Park serves a latte that's far superior to the typical mocha, vanilla or lavender varieties. Ube is a root vegetable that originated in the Philippines and is popular in Southeast Asia. Moonflower co-owner Sam Salomon is of Filipino descent and has long been familiar with ube's many uses. When used in a latte, which is available here hot or iced, it imparts a bright-purple hue and a natural sweetness, with earthy, nutty, vanilla-like notes that pair perfectly with acidic coffee and creamy milk.

Best International Cafe

Padoca Brazilian Bakery & Market

When Paula Lowery moved to Denver, it was hard to find a taste of home in the metro area, so she decided to start a business that specializes in dishes that remind her of her native Brazil. She named her colorful, cozy Mayfair cafe after the padocas (neighborhood bakeries) she longed for, and now serves traditional eats like pão de queijo (cheese bread), coxinha (chicken croquettes) and a variety of sobremesas (desserts). In addition to the baked goods and coffee drinks made with beans from São Paulo, visitors to Padoca will also find hearty dishes such as feijoada, a traditional dish with black beans, and plenty of takeaway options.

Best Indian Calzone in a Coffee Shop

Lil Coffea Shop

You've just popped into this neighborhood cafe for a jolt of joe when you notice something in the glass-front pastry case. It's big, it's puffy, it's golden-brown from the oven. A strange place to encounter a calzone, perhaps, but it only gets stranger when you sink your teeth into the soft, slightly bready shell. This is a chicken masala calzone, overloaded with bites of chicken in a cheezy, creamy, spicy sauce that threatens to spill down your chin on the first bite. Mostly, though, it's just too addictive, and the whole thing's gone in a heartbeat, leaving you to wonder how soon you can hustle back in to explore the rest of Lil Coffea's menu, from familiar breakfast burritos to the bharta makhani pizza topped with eggplant.

Best Noodles in a Tea Shop

One More Noodle

Volcano Tea House, shoehorned into a row of shops alongside the Aurora H Mart, started out as a delightfully cheery place to quench your thirst for Taiwanese milk teas and fruity concoctions. It has since changed its name and evolved into a full-on noodle house, where you can slurp your way through a mix-and-match menu of hand-shaved and hand-pulled noodles put to delicious use in soups and stir-fries. Not to be missed is One More Noodle's beef noodle soup, with impossibly long strands expertly pulled to the perfect width for joyous, noisy slurping. The broth is rich, the beef tender, and the bok choy simmered to just the right crunch. Pair it with dumplings or popcorn chicken, then grab a sweet and slushy drink loaded with popping boba or coffee jelly to double down on the slurping action.

Best Bubble Tea in a Bag

Die Die Must Try Beverage Co.

Abigail Bliss

The Chow family lived in Singapore for two decades before opening Die Die Must Try in Cherry Creek North late last year. The multi-generational owners hope to inspire others to experience new things — including bubble tea served in a da bao bag, which they say is the authentic Singapore style of enjoying your drink on the go. Certain offerings like soursop and calamansi fruit tea further highlight the family's roots, as do bottled beverages and imported snacks. Classic options like oolong and taro milk tea also appear on the menu, along with various add-ins including boba, red bean and grass jelly.

Best Food Truck After a Night Out

Amore Pizza

When last call sends you stumbling out of a downtown bar at 2 a.m., your stomach filled with one too many vodka Red Bulls (and little else), Amore Pizza is there with a warm, comforting slice. This food truck, which also has a brick-and-mortar on Santa Fe Drive, dishes out New York-style pizza whole or by the slice — not to mention calzones, cannoli, cheesecake and more to satisfy any late-night craving. It spends most weekends parked at the corner of 20th and Market streets, within a two-block radius of over a dozen bars including ViewHouse, Jackson's, Whiskey Row and Beer Hall. But while tipsy patrons first come for the prime location, they return for the delicious food even after they've sobered up.

instagram.com/amorepizzaco

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