Ellicottville Coffee Company

There's a coffee shop in the back of a ski-and-bike shop in Ellicottville with a bar in the basement that opens after the cafe closes. Ellicottville Coffee Company is family-owned, quaint on the main floor, and grab-and-go in feel, with most of the parking on side streets and a small footprint that takes a minute to find behind the larger retail space. The syrup list runs long enough to be the menu's signature: Strawberry, Toasted Marshmallow, a dirty chai if you want to play both sides. The Hikers grilled sandwich and a biscuit breakfast sandwich anchor the food, both built for someone who came off the mountain hungry. The Nitro Shake, paired with a macaroon, belongs on any order in a ski town, and the basement bar that opens after-hours is the kind of small-footprint move that keeps the family operation viable through the off-season. Order the Strawberry Latte, the Toasted Marshmallow iced latte, a dirty chai, an iced Americano, a hot chocolate when it's snowing, the Hikers grilled sandwich at lunch. Dogs are welcome at the door, which is part of the appeal in a town built around outdoor pursuits and animals coming inside with their people. Ski-town visitors and families will get the most out of the cozy main floor and the basement bar concept, which is a smart use of a small space: a cafe by day, a bar by night, both run by the same family with the same beans behind the counter. Laptop workers will find less to work with here. Wifi and a real work-friendly seating setup do not come up in what regulars talk about, and the room is set up to move people through rather than hold them in place for hours. The play is straightforward: go for a Strawberry latte and the Hikers sandwich at lunch, come back at night for the basement bar, leave with a Nitro Shake for the road and a macaroon for whoever's driving. The ski-and-bike shop arrangement out front is the thing to mention when you tell friends about the place.