Pausing for a much-needed caffeine hit when you’re exploring a new city is about so much more than the coffee itself. You haven’t travelled all that way to sit in a soulless chain with tired-looking sweet treats and unimaginative interiors, anyway, have you? Instead, you’ll want somewhere which feels like a landmark in its own right.
Handily, Atlas Obscura is here to help. The travel guide website has scoured the planet and compiled a pleasing, handpicked selection of coffee shops which ‘take on the character of their owners, patrons, and locations’, and ‘have a longevity that puts many bars and restaurants to shame.’
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So, where has topped their list? That’d actually be a museum – the MUMAC – in Binasco, Italy. This place is home to one of the world’s most comprehensive collections of coffee machines, which range from unique prototypes to industrial models and are organised into six different exhibitions. Go and explore, and then cop a spot at MUMAC café – you’re in safe hands with the baristas here.
In second place isn’t just a coffee shop, but also a space of significant historical relevance. Indian Coffee House in Connaught Place, New Delhi, might not seem like much from the outside, but was such a hub of influential figures during the 1970s that it was forced to close under Indira Gandhi’s ‘Emergency’ (a two-year suspension of civil liberties in India).
Back to Italy, Bar Luce in Milan claimed third place, while Bison Coffeehouse in Portland and Halipuu’s Campfire Barista in Sirkka, Finland round out the top five. If you need another hit or two, scroll on for a look at the full list of the planet’s coolest coffee shops.
These are the world’s 10 coolest coffee shops, according to Atlas Obscura
- MUMAC Coffee Machine Museum, Binasco, Italy
- Indian Coffee House (Connaught Place), New Delhi, India
- Bar Luce, Milan, Italy
- Bison Coffeehouse, Portland, Oregon, USA
- HaliPuu’s Campfire Barista, Sirkka, Finland
- Reaching Out Teahouse, Hội An, Vietnam
- Polcari’s Coffee, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
- Starbucks Ninenzaka Yasaka Chaya, Kyoto, Japan
- The Attendant (Fitzrovia), London, England
- Café La Habana, Mexico City, Mexico
You can read more about each of these weird and wonderful coffee shops, of which there are 25 in total, on the Atlas Obscura website.
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