Vigilante Coffee Hyattsville is the local roaster's flagship cafe just outside Washington DC on Gallatin Street, a community-roaster cafe with a coffee tasting bar and direct-trade beans.
Tip: Saturday cuppings at 11:00 run free; reserve via the website. The flagship is a 15-minute Metro ride from DC on the Green Line.
Address: 4327 Gallatin St, Hyattsville, MD 20781, Washington DC
Swing's Coffee Roasters in Washington DC is the G Street downtown branch of the 1916 Alexandria roaster, the oldest continuously-operating coffee roaster in the metro area at over 100 years.
Signature drink: Pour-over espresso
Tip: Order the house Premium Dark blend in the cup; the roaster has carried it since 1916.
Elle in Washington DC is Brad and Nick Deboy's Mount Pleasant Street all-day bakery-cafe-dinner spot, a James Beard semifinalist with sourdough at the counter and a wine list after dark.
Signature drink: Cortado and sourdough loaf
Tip: Mornings are for the bakery counter; dinner books out a week ahead. The wood-fired bread is the headliner.
The Wydown in Washington DC is the 14th Street pour-over cafe in Logan Circle from a Counter Culture and Ceremony partnership, a sparse white-counter room popular with laptop work.
Signature drink: Pour-over of the day
Tip: Outlets line the walls; the V60 hand-pours run faster at the bar than the table service.
Filter Coffeehouse in Washington DC is Maximilian Lacher's Dupont Circle 20th Street cafe since 2010, a third-wave room with Counter Culture and other guest roasters on the brew bar.
Signature drink: Filter coffee
Tip: The window seats are the city's best people-watching coffee perch; the brew bar serves three rotating roasters.
Lost Sock Roasters in Washington DC is the Takoma neighbourhood cafe and roastery from Joel Shuler, a single-origin pour-over bar with rotating Burundi and Colombian lots.
Signature drink: Pour-over single-origin
Tip: Bring laundry; the cafe shares its building with a laundromat and the joke is the brand name.
Kramers in Washington DC is the Dupont Circle bookshop cafe on Connecticut Avenue since 1976, an all-day room with a full restaurant kitchen and a cocktail bar tucked behind the bookshop.
Signature drink: House drip with bookshop pastries
Tip: Sunday brunch with a stack of newspapers and the bookshop wandering hours is the city's quietest morning ritual.
