Stephanie Hofmann
The north side has just two coffee shops — Manna Cafe in Lakewood Plaza and the Coffee Gallerie in Northside Town Center, close to Warner Park. Coffee Gallerie is more modest in scope than Manna, but it serves a big purpose and a large area of the city. Pastries and sandwiches, a salad bar and frozen yogurt station round out the food. It’s a pleasant shop with a few nooks and crannies for study, meetings with neighbors or just relaxing.
The shop takes the “Gallerie” aspect of its name seriously, too, always devoting wall space to a local artist, recently Madison’s Ali Brooks.
Coffee Gallerie uses beans from JBC Coffee Roasters, and features a light and a dark roast cup daily, along with the full contingent of more complex drinks.
Recently the server recommended the Colombian dark roast to me as having the edge in flavor over the two cups of the day, and when I asked for room for milk, he asked what kind — skim? Two percent? Whole? He retrieved it straight from the fridge. Why ruin excellent JBC beans by asking customers to mix warmish skim and half-and-half? Why don’t more coffee houses do this?