Best of the Best: Morning Brews & Sweet Treats
Our area is awash in new stops to add to your morning routine. With cafes, coffee and tea houses, plus doughnuts, donuts, pâtisseries and bakeries, we should be starting our days caffeinated and happy.
Media’s Cafesphere is the newest addition to the town’s morning spots (25 E. State St.), serving up sustainability along with coffee, matcha, chai, raspberry herbata tea plus sweet and savory breakfast and lunch options. Baguettes, croissants and mousse cake give a French vibe, and the cozy fireplace nook and rooftop deck make you want to stay all day.
It’s called a café, but the Butter Pecan Café in Coatesville’s Small Business Incubator (228 Lincoln Hwy. E.) is more of a Southern cooking/ dessert destination, showcasing meal-cappers like banana pudding, 7-Up cake, sweet potato pie, peach cobbler and, of course, butter pecan ice cream. Starting with Friday and Saturday hours, look for them to expand hours and menu, where everything is served with love … and butter pecan ice cream.
With two new locations (200 River Station Blvd., Downingtown & 120 N. Church St., West Chester), Twin Valley Coffee is bringing their signature, fully customizable nitro cold brews (visit on cold brew Wednesdays) along with the classics (from espresso shots to chai lattes) and seasonal drinks (like PSL and maple brown sugar). They’ve come a long way from roasting coffee in a hot air corn popper and a roadside stand!
Need more coffee choices? Lacava Coffee Company (104 E. Gay St.), across from the old West Chester Post Office, brews up your morning caffeine, with beans imported directly from Honduras and roasted nearby in Lancaster County. And pick up a bar of single-origin chocolate from Yojoa.
Prefer tea? Then Mimi’s Tea Cottage in West Chester (50 S. High St.) is just the spot. With an English-garden inspired interior, plus touches like a British phone booth, this new shop can serve 50 fans a traditional full afternoon tea with 35 types of tea (bottomless cups), tea sandwiches, scones and dainty desserts made in house and served on a three-tiered tray ($32.99).
You spell doughnuts, I spell donuts, but both versions are available from new locations. Looking for artisanal, handmade, all-natural goodies (no dyes, corn syrup, GMOs), then head to Wanderlust Doughnuts in Kennett Square (119 W. State St.) for a creative selection of about 20 styles a day — dark chocolate sea salt, lemon/raspberry crumble, mascarpone filled.
Rose’s Little Donuts in West Chester (22 N. Darlington St.) promises fresh donuts, coffee and espresso with its Thanksgiving week opening. Check the changing weekly lineup of choices — cookies & cream, chocolate sea salt caramel and coffee. Yep, a coffee-flavored donut. Genius. Also in West Chester and also with a late 2023 opening, Happy Bakery (formerly known as City Buns, 34 S. High St.) has its yummy sticky buns along with new treats like banana pudding, citrus olive oil cake and the world’s best chocolate cake (three layers).
And the pièce de résistance, Pâtisserie Lola brings beaucoup French pastries to Kennett (219 E. State St.), all made onsite and with sustainability in mind. Feast your eyes on highlights from a changing menu, including pastel macarons, flaky croissants, plus treasures like opera cakes, lemon meringue tarts, nonnettes, sablé cookies, and don’t forget the madeleines. Oh là là.