Cafes and coffee boutiques are hubs for heated and iced drinks are becoming plentiful.
Two new additions to Savannah’s budding caffeine scene offer more than just a cup of grab-and-go joe. Blends: A Coffee Boutique and Cup to Cup Café serve their beverages from a modernized focus on coffee drinking as an art and encounter.
Cup to Cup Café
Cup to Cup Coffee Roasters brews an array of bold roasts and beans all unique to Savannah. They made their way to Savannah’s Historic District in 2016. Their cafe at 140 Abercorn Street, serves everything from cappuccinos to coffee tonics and cascaras.
This intimate cafe instills an affable atmosphere with the front window on bar built with repurposed wood. Here community and coffee go hand in hand. James Spano, roaster and owner of Cup to Cup, believes coffee is relational and has the ability to bond people from all walks of life.
“There’s something about sitting down and enjoying a good cup of coffee that breaks down barriers and opens the door to friendship,” Spano said. “This is important to us. It also reflects our goal to provide you with a great coffee that is consistent, cup to cup.”
Spano began his coffee career nearly seven years ago with a little roastery operated on Wilmington Island and a dream of running his own retail cafe. With Cup to Cup Café, he wanted to create a space that showcased his coffee and all of its capabilities.
“We’ve got a good mix of traditional drinks and innovative beverages that are trending in the greater specialty coffee scene,” Spano said. “You can sit down with the local paper and enjoy a traditional cappuccino in the size it was intended to be served, or to can hang out at the bar and try out a cascara fizz, featuring cascara, the dried husk of the coffee fruit which has a light refreshing cherry like flavor.”
Blends: A Coffee Boutique
Blends owner Javier Carro describes his Broughton Street coffee shop, not as a cafe but a boutique. Carro believes Blends elevates the coffee-drinking experience to the same platform as wine-tasting. The boutique boasts (or “roasts”) six varieties of freshly blended coffee from around the globe. You can sip, sample and swap a different international java with each visit. Carro’s green coffees from Guatemala, Colombia, Brazil, Puerto Rico, Ethiopia and Sumatra are brought in and roasted fresh in-house.
Carro visited and studied coffee roasters around the world to create his own take on a coffee tasting environment. His hand-crafted single reserve coffees put the power of the French press in the customer’s hands.
Blends also serves soups, sandwiches, salads, pastries, cheese boards and empanadas. Customers also have the option of purchasing Blends own ground coffee sold in mini or regular sized packaging. Wander to the back of the boutique to watch Carro’s in-house coffee roaster gently mix a batch of fresh coffee beans.
Starbucks on Bay Street
Speaking of bagged coffee, Downtown Savannah’s lone Starbucks at the corner of Bull and Broughton Streets is about to get a sibling near Barnard and West Bay Streets. Mike Turner, the district manager of both Savannah and Hilton Head Starbucks locations. Interested applicants should apply online first at starbucks.com/careers to ensure hiring managers will have everything they need for the interview.
