Royal Flamingo Coffee House

Royal Flamingo lives inside a bar called I Like It Like That on King Ave in Columbus, and the shared-building setup is the first thing to know. The interior breaks into colorful little nooks of mismatched, comfortable seating tucked in wherever they fit, with background music that's deliberately a little too lively for serious laptop work. Some people find it too much for focused study. They're right. This isn't built for that. The heated covered patio is the move in winter. Stays smoke-free even when the bar side gets going, which is a real differentiator in a building this size.

The coffee program is the most experimental in Columbus, and the team isn't hiding it. Single-origin beans rotate constantly, often weekly. The signature lattes read like a list of things nobody else is doing: Mole No. 5, Buy Myself Flowers, Santorini Sling. Some hit hard. Some don't land at all. The honest read is that consistency is a real issue here. Across multiple visits the same drink can taste meaningfully different, and that's the trade-off the operation is making in exchange for the ambition of the menu. Regulars accept it as the price of being able to try the things they're trying.

Pour overs and straight single-origin espresso are the move if you want to taste what the team is working with rather than what they're dressing up. Anyone with a dairy allergy should know going in that oat milk is a dollar upcharge. Small thing, comes up often enough that it's worth flagging before you order.

This is a place to come if you want a coffee program built on curiosity and willing to gamble on its own menu. The fact that some of those gambles miss is part of what makes the rest worth the trip. It is not the place if you want the same latte to taste the same way every Tuesday morning, and if that's what you're looking for, there are a dozen shops in Columbus that will deliver it. Royal Flamingo isn't competing with them and isn't trying to.