INFLUX Magazine Spring 2024

The Best Sip<br />

Finding the best coffee in Minneapolis’ North Loop.<br />

By Fiona Curran<br />

Starbucks. Caribou.<br />

Bruegger’s. Colleges<br />

tend to have so many<br />

coffee chains on campus,<br />

and while their offerings are<br />

tasty, I felt that there was<br />

something more. Out there.<br />

In the city.<br />

As an Illinoisan, I haven’t explored<br />

downtown Minneapolis as much as I<br />

wanted to in my time as a student. I started<br />

college during the pandemic, and now, with<br />

only a few weeks left, I just didn’t know<br />

how to get started.<br />

My friend Alayna Sikac would send me<br />

videos of cute coffee flights and pleasing<br />

latte art and we would talk about going on<br />

a little adventure. She’s also an out-of-state<br />

student, but we never planned a day to go<br />

to the city.<br />

So when InFlux prompted me to think<br />

about what I wanted to search for, coffee<br />

was at the front of my mind. I pored<br />

over my saved videos on Instagram,<br />

screenshotting the names of every cafe and<br />

plugging them into Google to determine<br />

the best location for The Crawl. As the<br />

Grammy Awards provided the background<br />

music to my maniacal planning, I picked<br />

the six best shops.<br />

Alayna and I prepared for a full day of<br />

walking around the North Loop. At 9:15<br />

a.m. on a very sunny, very cold February<br />

day, we hopped on the light rail to start<br />

The Crawl.<br />

Fairgrounds Craft Coffee and Tea<br />

116 N. 3rd Ave., Minneapolis<br />

Ordered: Frothy monkey (decaf<br />

espresso) latte with skim milk and<br />

caramel flavoring<br />

Cost: $5.52<br />

When we walked into Fairgrounds Craft<br />

Coffee and Tea at 9:43 a.m., a colorful, litup<br />

“F” greeted us. My name starts with the<br />

same letter, but I can rarely find anything to<br />

show it off, so I felt immediately welcome.<br />

Pendants from past Minnesota state fairs<br />

hung on the walls and greenery covered the<br />

various shelves.<br />

The lights were made out of old glass<br />

pour-over coffee makers. The bright, warm,<br />

natural sunlight woke me up before I even<br />

had any coffee. And, perhaps my favorite<br />

part, they had swings you could sway on<br />

while sipping your coffee. Alayna drew<br />

on the Etch A Sketch propped up by the<br />

espresso machine.<br />

The barista couldn’t have been kinder to<br />

us and walked us through the menu, which<br />

included drink options of coffee, tea and<br />

kombucha. Fairgrounds makes their vanilla<br />

and caramel in-house and doesn’t charge<br />

customers for milk alternatives as many<br />

other cafes do.<br />

As I sat sipping on my latte, which<br />

had a cute balloon floating on top in foam<br />

art, I thought about what a strong start<br />

Fairgrounds was for The Crawl. Alayna and<br />

I stayed there for almost an hour and while<br />

we were sad to leave, we were even more<br />

excited to continue on our journey.<br />

Backstory Coffee Roasters 528 N.<br />

Washington Ave., Minneapolis<br />

Ordered: Honey cinnamon latte with<br />

skim milk<br />

Cost: $6.61<br />

At 10:43 a.m., Alayna and I walked up<br />

the stairs to Backstory Coffee Roasters and<br />

I immediately loved<br />

the interior design. Plants combined<br />

with dark, moody shades<br />

of green are two of my favorite aesthetic<br />

decisions, and this place had both! The<br />

lights looked like blooming flowers and<br />

the natural sunlight came in through huge<br />

windows, adding to the industrial feeling.<br />

The coffee bar was gilded in bronze on the<br />

top and mirrors lined the back wall. People<br />

could chat while sitting at the marble<br />

countertop.<br />

The large bookshelves were filled with<br />

antiques, with each section highlighting<br />

a different vibe. The back wall was my<br />

favorite. It was covered in unique vases, a<br />

typewriter and two mannequins that both<br />

unsettled and intrigued me.<br />

Along the walls were U-shaped couches<br />

where you could socialize with friends. A<br />

group of guys lounged in sweatsuits and on<br />

the other side, a group of girlfriends chatted<br />

with coffees in hand. In the center of the<br />

room, people filled every seat at a long<br />

wooden table where they typed away on<br />

their laptops.<br />

I loved everything about Backstory.<br />

Every time I shifted my focus, something<br />

new stood out to me.<br />

A barista at The Last Drop Cafe brews the<br />

Valentine’s Day coffee flight located in Minneapolis<br />

on February 16, <strong>2024</strong>. Photo by Fiona Curran<br />

22 <strong>INFLUX</strong> MAGAZINE SPRING <strong>2024</strong> SPRING <strong>2024</strong> <strong>INFLUX</strong> MAGAZINE 23