Sol Cafe & Smoothie Bar

Roasts its own beans in a Rhinebeck storefront on East Market that also runs a smoothie and bowl menu next to the espresso machine, which is a strange combination on the menu board that mostly pays off on the plate. The space leans California beach: a couple of sidewalk tables out front, a few cozy spots inside, two small areas set up well for plugging in a laptop. Chill and laid-back, in the words that turn up over and over. The kind of room a Hudson Valley town doesn't always have but probably should.

The food side is where the place is most sure of itself. The Blue Laguna bowl is the order if you've never been; it sets the tone for the whole menu. The Cabo avocado toast holds up to a return visit. A smoothie made to order is what the kitchen is built around, and the made-to-order part shows in how the fruit lands, which is to say it tastes like the fruit and not like a sweetener.

The coffee side is where reasonable people disagree. One regular flat-out warned other customers off the cappuccino and the cortado, calling both weak. That's worth taking seriously when a shop runs its own roast, because in-house roasting is not the same as in-house extraction, and the difference shows up in a small cup. If you're walking in for an espresso drink and nothing else, this isn't the Hudson Valley stop to make.

If you're stopping for a smoothie and a bowl with a laptop and twenty minutes to kill, you'll be glad you did. Stick to the bowl menu, sit by the window, plug in. Save the cortado for the next town. Visitors who want a healthy quick lunch or a light laptop session land in the right place; anyone there strictly for espresso has a coin flip in front of them.