The Coffee Ride - Coffee Roasters & Cafe

All the syrups at The Coffee Ride are made from scratch in house. That should be table stakes at a roastery cafe and almost never is, which makes it the right opener for this Boulder operation at 2516 49th St. One regular called the location super off the beaten track. That's accurate, and probably the point. You do not find this place by driving past it.

The room is laid-back, attached to the roasting operation, with indoor tables and bar stools alongside an outdoor area where the staff have been seen refilling water bowls for visiting dogs. Customers consistently say it's the kind of place you could spend hours chatting in, which holds up against the rest of the evidence: the patio, the syrups, the on-site roasting and packaging, the unhurried pace at the counter. The owners are roasting and packaging on the premises, so what you smell while you sit is what you'll be drinking later.

For drinks, order a latte and let the from-scratch syrups carry it. The vanilla and similar standards taste different when they were made by the people pouring the espresso. For something to eat, the banana bread and the chocolate chip cookies are the two items regulars name first off the bake case. The dog-friendly patio is the second reason people come back, alongside the fact that the staff pays close attention to the dogs that arrive with them.

Who it suits: people who want a quiet, off-the-main-drag Boulder cafe to linger in with a dog and a syrup-driven latte. Parking is limited and the spot is genuinely hard to find, which means it works better as a destination than as a quick stop on the way somewhere else. Plan an afternoon, not fifteen minutes. Pick up a bag of beans on the way out, since they were roasted in the same building you've been sitting in.