Baba Boudan's Espresso

There is an ATM inside Baba Boudan's Espresso, and when you use it, you get free chocolate-covered coffee beans. That is the kind of detail that sounds like a local-news story but is how the shop has run for years. The place is cash-only, tiny, and roasts its own coffee in-house. Three tables fit inside. A handful of picnic-style seats sit outside under whatever shade the day provides. There is also a drive-thru, which is how a lot of Fayetteville regulars take it on the way to campus or to work. The single room means when it fills, the conversation gets loud and stays loud. The roasting bags piled around the space and the laid-back charm are the reasons people keep coming back instead of treating that as a deal-breaker. The Mocha Mexicana is the signature, and the latte and the espresso hold up against anything else in town. Saturdays bring biscuits and gravy, served only on that day, which has built up a small ritual among the regulars who plan their weekend mornings around it. The owner is award-winning for cookies and pastries that turn up in the case on a rotation worth checking. The raspberry deluxe muffin, the peanut butter cookie and the classic shortbread are the regular reaches when those are in. Bring cash. Do not plan to camp at a quiet table inside for the afternoon, because the room cannot accommodate that, and the drive-thru regulars are the operational priority during any busy hour. If you want a serious, small, owner-roasted cup of coffee with a free chocolate-covered bean as a parting gift from the ATM, this is the Fayetteville stop. The ATM trick alone is worth a visit, and the in-house roast lifts the cup above the standard college-town coffee floor by a clear margin. Baba Boudan's has stuck around because the people who run it bother with the small details: the bean dispenser, the Saturday biscuits, the owner's cookies in the case.