When you take a trip to Sin City, it’s rare for the “morning after” and its needs to be factored in to itineraries and plans, but espresso and tea are very important supplies, especially if you plan to have a few memorable and crazy nights. And since locating a good coffee shop is hard to do with a pounding head and questionable stomach, thinking (or reading) ahead on such matters will certainly come in handy. Regardless of what you did or how late it lasted, a fantastic double espresso or Americano in the morning is a necessary part of the restorative process. Don’t let Las Vegas keep you from Las Vegas. These coffee shops have some of the best brew and tea offerings in town to get you up and keep you up, night after night. If you are planning to take a holiday in Las Vegas any time soon, keep these places in mind!
Beanz Coffee Café
Beanz Coffee Café is a newer addition to the Las Vegas coffee landscape, but the locals have embraced it in droves. Serving only locally roasted coffee and espresso beans, Beanz Coffee Café has a remarkable variety of coffee and espresso drinks served hot, iced or blended, as well as teas, smoothies, sodas, cocoas, muffins and pastries. They host an open mic night every other Friday if you tire of the casinos and feature local artists on their walls. If you’re in Vegas on business in addition to pleasure, they also have wireless Internet, so you can get some work done while you let their caffeine work its magic.
Grouchy John’s Coffee
Whether or not it’s named to appeal to the masses who wake up feeling lousy after an excellent night, Grouchy John’s provides an atmosphere that can only be described as relaxing and reinvigorating. With locally sourced and roasted beans, it also supplies excellent teas, pastries and other menu items that come from the surrounding community. They have a mobile unit that pops up around the city, and its schedule is (mostly) kept updated on their website. The best part? Monday through Friday, this shop opens at 5 a.m. So, whether it’s because the night got so out of hand that it became morning or because jet lag’s cruel hold on you will not release, Grouchy John’s is there — with the best coffee and tea — to guide you through to the next round.
Sambalatte
An upscale espresso lounge and café that offers a dense and exotic menu, Sambalatte’s obsessive charm is easily seen in the brewing styles it offers to customers.
- The single brew. Also known as a pour-over, each cup is made as it is ordered. Its advantage over the traditional American brewing style is that the water passes more slowly over the ground beans, allowing for more contact and therefore, more flavour. Customers can also customize the beans in their order since each cup is unique.
- The vacuum brew. An infusion method invented in the 1830s, this two-chamber pot acts as a siphon. By heating and cooling the lower chamber, the vapour pressure forces the water up into the coffee grounds in the upper chamber before the water falls back down into the lower one as coffee. It tastes like a true Americano.
- The AeroPress. This method uses ideal water temperature and air pressure to make a coffee low in acidity and bitterness, but rich in flavour.
- The French press. A traditional and popular method that lets ground beans steep in boiled water. After a set amount of time, the grounds are pressed away, leaving a rich coffee behind.
- The Chemex pot. This approach is similar to the single brew, but it makes more than one cup and requires slightly more finesse from your barista.
In addition to this zealous approach to coffee offerings, Sambalatte has an impressive selection of pastries, muffins, quiche and sandwiches. If your hangover needs a more pampered treatment, this is the café for you.
Sunrise Coffee
Sunrise Coffee offers a calming coffee shop environment along with good coffee and excellent tea. Their notable selection of loose leaf teas, includes local varieties, traditional green teas, single state Assam teas, fruit teas and herbal teas, and almost all of it is fair trade and organic. In addition to sourcing their coffee beans and teas well, they also boast a highly trained and charming staff of baristas who never talk too loudly in the mornings. They also serve a variety of vegetarian and vegan food.
No matter what you get yourself into on a night out in Las Vegas, these four shops and their smashing coffees and teas will perk you back up whenever it is you decide to greet the sun the next day.
Image by kennejima from Flickr Creative Commons
About the Author: Amy Hardy is a writer based out of London. She has travelled to Las Vegas several times, the latest being last summer.