Linda Falkenstein
Cafe Domestique
Stone Creek Coffee might at first seem like a sibling to Colectivo. Like Colectivo, it’s a design-conscious, Milwaukee-based chain — but it comes across more like Colectivo’s coffee-geek date than a sibling. You’ll find two pour-over systems (the Clever and a Hario V-60) and an Aeropress to choose from for individual brewing of your cup. There is copious information available about the origin and roasting of the beans, and at least three varieties are available to choose from daily. The new East Washington Avenue location, Madison’s first, even boasts a dedicated room for coffee classes. It opened in December.
The food menu is less extensive here than it is at Colectivo, and there are no house beers on tap. From that, you could naturally assume that coffee is the focus — except Stone Creek is also merch city, selling logo-emblazoned everything (mugs, T-shirts, socks, hats, posters, even branded journals for that old-school coffeehouse creative experience).
Stone Creek has staked out territory in an odd block of East Wash, with new apartments above and ShopBop corporate headquarters across the street. Yet the area seems slow to rouse, not quite happening.
My cup of the day was fine, and so was my Clever-brewed Burundi — not at all over-extracted. The Clever looks like a Chemex-style filter holder, but the water stays in the grounds instead of dripping through the filter immediately. At just the right time the barista places the Clever over a cup and releases the brew. In other words, the method is something between a Chemex and a French press, the coffee earthier than from a regular pour-over, but not as earthy as from a press.
While Stone Creek serves good coffee, brewed for purists, it can feel as much like a gift shop as a coffeehouse.
Cafe Domestique has a home-grown feel. Its decorative theme is bicycle racing, and it’s the only coffeeshop in Madison where you’ll find a copy of Peloton magazine to browse while sipping. It opened in December.
The bike decor makes sense, as the shop connects through a large open doorway with the Cargo Bike Shop next door, which sells commuter/hauling bikes.
Beans are by Chicago-based Intelligentsia, but the cafe serves only brewed coffee and espresso drinks, no pour-overs. That said, Domestique comes up with a mellow but flavorful cortado (espresso and steamed milk). The most offbeat entry on the drink menu is a rosemary brown sugar latte, which has only a vague rosemary flavor — probably a good thing.
Food is restricted to bakery, direct from Batch Bakehouse two doors down, and as such, it’s very fresh. Anything Batch is good in my book, and if Domestique doesn’t have your favorite muffin or whatnot, hey, the source is 52 feet away.
Linda Falkenstein
Stone Creek Coffee, Cafe Domestique, and Cafe Social.
Cafe Social is perched somewhat awkwardly in the lobby of the new Uncommon apartment building at the corner of Bedford and West Mifflin. It never quite overcomes that lobby feeling; it’s a place of transit, not a settle-in-and-stay kind of place. The cafe opened in August.
What Cafe Social lacks in atmosphere, it makes up for with its food. In addition to empanadas made by the local Violet Rose Artisan Foods, there are tamales from Madison’s Tamaleria El Poblano, soups from Herbs, Spices and More in Arena, Wisconsin, chicken pot pie and quiche Lorraine from the Paoli Bread and Brat Haus and doughnuts from Greenbush Bakery.
A delicious black bean andouille rice soup, a recent daily special, was lighter than its name suggests; a veggie empanada wasn’t as crisp as it could have been, but was clearly homemade. And you can’t go wrong with those tamales. Daily breakfast and lunch sandwiches are also on the menu.
What about the coffee? Co-owner Omar Lopez sources beans from his sister’s farm and other coffee farms nearby in Quindio, Colombia; the beans are also roasted there. That’s a cup of joe you can feel good about. No pour-overs here, but the cup of the day is a good Colombian (available in a dark or a medium roast or as decaf), and there are the full range of coffee drinks, including four super-sweet mochas and lattes (Mounds bar mocha? Nutella latte?) catering to those with a sweet tooth or anyone needing to stay awake forever. Why would you want to do that to such good coffee?
Stone Creek Coffee
1216 E. Washington Ave., 608-422-5266, stonecreekcoffee.com, $1.75-$5.25
Cafe Domestique
1408 Williamson St., 608-467-2021, cafedomestiquemadison.com, $2-$4.50
Cafe Social
102 N. Bedford St., 608-305-4357, cafesocial.us, $1-$7