Where to get coffee in downtown Colorado Springs

---
title: "Where to get coffee in downtown Colorado Springs"
description: "Four independent coffee shops in downtown Colorado Springs, from a tiny house in Acacia Park to an apothecary-themed bar in the Mining Exchange Hotel."
source: "https://www.avian-coloradosprings.com/blog/downtown-colorado-springs-coffee"
markdown: "https://www.avian-coloradosprings.com/markdown/blog/downtown-colorado-springs-coffee"
lastModified: "2026-06-16"
---
# Where to get coffee in downtown Colorado Springs
- Published: 2026-06-16
- Last reviewed: 2026-06-16
- Author: Avian leasing team
- Category: Neighborhood
- Primary keyword: downtown Colorado Springs coffee
- Secondary keywords: downtown Colorado Springs coffee, best coffee shops Colorado Springs, coffee near Tejon Street, Story Coffee Colorado Springs, Loyal Coffee Colorado Springs
- Reading time: 6 minutes
You live at 217 S. Weber. It's Saturday. You want a cup that didn't come from a Keurig, and you want to walk there.

Four shops qualify. One is three minutes from your door. Pair the walk with [a quick hike or a longer trail](/blog/best-hikes-near-downtown-colorado-springs) and the morning is done before most of the city is up.

One housekeeping note. Downtown lost two staples in 2024: [The Perk Downtown closed in May](https://www.koaa.com/news/covering-colorado/prominent-cafe-in-colorado-springs-to-close-following-16-years-of-operation), and [Wild Goose Meeting House closed in September](https://gazette.com/business/downtown-colorado-springs-caf-and-meeting-house-set-to-close-just-before-11th-anniversary/article_753a2458-60cd-11ef-a487-8fae36a0ed14.html). If you've seen them on an old list, throw the list out. The four below are open as of 2026.

## What's the best coffee shop near downtown Colorado Springs?

Depends what you're doing.

Story Coffee Company is the closest shop to Avian, a tiny house wedged into Acacia Park at 120 E Bijou. Loyal Coffee on South Nevada pulls the most technically dialed shots in town and opens at 6 a.m. The Best Coffee & Lounge took over the old Wild Goose space on North Tejon and is where you go when you want to sit for a while. BLK MGK inside the Mining Exchange Hotel is an apothecary-style bar where the espresso is good and the menu reads like a list of tinctures.

There's no wrong answer here, just a right one for this particular morning.

## Story Coffee Company: when you want something small and unreasonably good

Story is roughly a 200-square-foot house parked in Acacia Park. I'm not exaggerating. A literal tiny house with a walk-up window. You order from the sidewalk.

There's seating in the park, which is great for the 47 weeks a year Colorado Springs has sunshine. A handful of bar stools inside when it doesn't.

The coffee is bright and clean. They're a multi-roaster shop, so the beans on the bar change regularly. The owners, Don and Carissa Niemyer, opened the downtown location in November 2015 and call it ["the world's first Tiny House Coffee Shop where customers come inside"](https://www.storycoffeecompany.com/our-story). They've stayed small on purpose.

A 12-ounce latte is around $5.50. Cash and card both work. The menu is tight, the operation is simple, and that's the point.

From Avian: walk north on Weber to Bijou, turn west. Three minutes.

## Loyal Coffee: when you want the best shot of espresso in town

Loyal sits at [408 S. Nevada Avenue](https://loyalcoffee.co/pages/location-downtown), about 10 minutes south of Avian on foot. The space is concrete, wood, and big windows. People who take coffee seriously will post a photo of their cappuccino here without feeling weird about it. The company was [founded in 2016 by a team of baristas](https://loyalcoffee.co/pages/about), opened the downtown café in October 2017, and got written up by [Sprudge for being "small in focus but grand in execution"](https://sprudge.com/in-colorado-springs-loyal-coffee-is-small-in-focus-but-grand-in-execution-135906.html). Loyal roasts its own beans on the south side and trains its own baristas. They also do direct-trade sourcing, though I'm not sure how many people who claim to care about that can actually name the farm their beans came from.

Order the seasonal single-origin espresso. If you drink drip, ask what's on batch brew. It changes daily and it's rarely a letdown. They also make a solid breakfast burrito, which matters at 7:30 a.m.

Gets busy on weekends. Line out the door by 9:30 on Saturdays, but it moves. WiFi is reliable. Laptop campers take the big communal table. Smaller two-tops along the windows if you want to read instead. For a full setup on [working remote from a downtown apartment](/blog/remote-work-downtown-colorado-springs-apartment), coffee shop rotation is only part of the picture.

The downtown café opens at 6 a.m. daily, which makes it the early-morning play. You can stop reading.

From Avian: walk south on Weber, cut west to Nevada. Ten minutes. Google says nine if you're motivated.

## The Best Coffee & Lounge: when you need to post up for three hours

This is the new occupant of the old Wild Goose space at 401 N Tejon, on the corner of Boulder and Tejon. It [opened on May 28, 2025](https://springsmag.com/the-best-coffee-lounge-to-open-in-site-of-former-wild-goose-meeting-house/), run by Monse and Tim Hines along with Humberto Cabrera and Rudy Ramos. About 15 minutes from Avian on foot.

Same bones as Wild Goose, different mood. Matte golds, earth tones, firepits on the back terrace. The space still works as a coffee shop, a cocktail bar, and a meeting room. The full menu runs coffee, wine, craft beer, cocktails, and food, with a [private room you can book](https://thebestcoffeelounge.com/about/) if your "remote work" turns into a small offsite. They're open until 11 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, which makes the after-dinner cortado-and-amaro move actually possible downtown.

Coffee comes from a rotating roster. WiFi holds up under load. Outlets everywhere. The crowd skews late-20s to mid-40s, laptops and headphones, the occasional book club taking over a corner.

They open at 8 a.m., so this isn't the 6 a.m. fix. For that, see below.

From Avian: walk north on Weber to Boulder, then up to Tejon. Fifteen minutes. Or remember you live somewhere with a [shared workspace](/amenities) and save yourself the walk.

## BLK MGK: when 6 a.m. and a hotel lobby actually sound great

BLK MGK is inside the [Mining Exchange Hotel at 8 S Nevada Avenue](https://www.miningexchangehotel.com/blk-mgk-coffee-shop), about six minutes from Avian. Pronounced "black magic." Opens at 6 a.m. daily, closes at 3 p.m.

The concept leans into the building's history as a 1902 mining exchange. [An apothecary-style coffee bar](https://www.fox21news.com/living-local/new-coffee-shop-blk-mgk-brings-brew-magic-to-the-mining-exchange/) with a tincture program. The espresso list sits next to a list of things like activated charcoal, collagen, and bee pollen, which sounds insufferable until you taste the drinks and realize the coffee people running this place know what they're doing. Beans are sourced from local roaster [Hold Fast Coffee](https://www.fox21news.com/living-local/new-coffee-shop-blk-mgk-brings-brew-magic-to-the-mining-exchange/). The food menu runs from avocado toast to a smoothie with hemp seed and local honey.

High ceilings, marble, the lobby buzz of a downtown hotel. If you want quiet, this isn't it. If you want a cortado at 6:15 a.m. before a flight or a meeting in Manitou, it works.

From Avian: north on Weber, west on Pikes Peak to Nevada. Six minutes.

## What about Switchback?

Switchback Coffee Roasters is genuinely great. Their café at [330 N Institute](https://switchbackroasters.com/pages/locations) serves some of the best coffee in El Paso County. It's also not walking distance from downtown. Seven minutes east by car, or about 30 minutes on foot each way. Worth the trip on a weekend when you want something different. [Two friends started it in a garage in 2010](https://switchbackroasters.com/) and have grown it carefully since. Their avocado toast on sourdough is the best in town. The greenhouse patio has exactly one perfect table that's in full sun from 9 to 11. This isn't your Tuesday-morning-before-a-standup option.

## What about Starbucks?

There's a Starbucks at 111 S Tejon. It opens early and will make you a venti oat milk latte in under two minutes. The bathroom requires a code.

We won't pretend you're above it, and we won't pretend it belongs on the same list.

If you're new to the neighborhood, start with Story. It's the closest, and it's the one you'll end up telling visitors about. After three months here, you'll have a routine. Loyal at 6:25. BLK MGK when you have a meeting at the Mining Exchange anyway. The Best when you can't face another day of working from your living room. The rest of the time you'll be staying in to make use of [downtown's restaurant density](/blog/restaurants-walking-distance-downtown-colorado-springs) and the [other reasons people end up here](/blog/downtown-colorado-springs-living).

The unit comes with a Keurig. That's fine for Tuesday.

For Saturday, walk.

*Avian is a LEED Silver certified apartment community at 217 S. Weber St. in downtown Colorado Springs, one block from Tejon Street. [Schedule a tour](/contact) to see the building.*

## Common questions

### What's the closest coffee shop to Avian at 217 S. Weber?

Story Coffee Company at 120 E Bijou is a three-minute walk. It's a 200-square-foot tiny house in Acacia Park with a walk-up window and seating in the park. Open since 2018, closes at 2 p.m. most days.
### Which downtown Colorado Springs coffee shop is best for working from a laptop?

Wild Goose Meeting House on North Tejon. It's about a 15-minute walk from Avian and built for staying — reliable WiFi, plenty of outlets, leather chairs, a sandwich counter for lunch, and a beer bar if your afternoon goes sideways.
### Where do you get the best espresso in downtown Colorado Springs?

Loyal Coffee on South Nevada Avenue, about a 10-minute walk south of Avian. They roast their own beans, train their own baristas, and the seasonal single-origin espresso is the order. Open since 2015 and the anchor of the city's specialty coffee scene.
### What's the earliest coffee shop near downtown Colorado Springs?

The Perk Downtown at 14 S Tejon opens at 6 a.m. on weekdays — the earliest option in the immediate downtown cluster. Drip coffee around $3, breakfast burritos, sidewalk patio, about an eight-minute walk from Avian.