FoJo Beans

The Dans roast ethically-sourced beans on site at FoJo Beans on Utica Street in Hamilton, a block off the Colgate campus, and someone sometimes plays soothing piano in the morning. That's the kind of detail that tells you what the room is going for, and it's a useful tell to walk in with. Brick walls, soft chairs grouped in twos and threes for a semi-private feel, a window bar with high seats facing the street, chalkboard menus, and a separate room for bagged roasted beans you can have ground to your method while you wait. Outdoor seating runs from a back patio to sidewalk tables, which doubles the seating capacity on a clear day during the academic year. The breakfast sandwich is homemade, and one regular calls it shockingly satisfying, which is the kind of phrase a regular uses when the kitchen has exceeded a low expectation set by other college-town cafes. Vegetarian and vegan options run through the menu, which makes the place workable for almost any visiting parent or student diet without requiring a special order. Order a latte, the breakfast sandwich, a bag of beans (ground to your method), or place an online bean order that ships the next day if you want to keep the supply going after you leave Hamilton at the end of the weekend. Colgate students and locals make this work as a study spot and a hangout, and visitors looking for ethically sourced beans to ship home are the other half of the audience the operation serves. The catch is the morning open. Multiple customers wish the doors opened before 9am, and if you need a 7am cup before class or a flight, this is not the move and you should plan ahead. Otherwise, walk in, claim a soft chair in one of the semi-private groupings, eat the breakfast sandwich, leave with a bag of beans and an online ordering account for the next round. The semi-private seating layout is the architectural detail worth noting on the way out: you can study without feeling exposed to the whole room, which is harder to design into a small cafe than it looks from the door.