Editor’s note: This is the third in a four-part series on coffee shops in Montgomery County that was printed in the November/December issue of Bethesda Magazine. Read part one here, part two here and part three here.
Robust coffee & Latin American fare
With high-quality coffee, vibrant food, comfortable digs, reasonable prices and friendly service, these two family-owned spots are true gems.
Gardenia’s Café
“We’re a family of four with one dream; to spread love and happiness through food,” says the website for Gardenia’s Cafe, where Fernando Ortega, Maritza Martinez and their adult children Genesis Gardenia and Joshua, do just that. The sunny outlook in this strip shopping center locale starts with mango-colored walls, inviting service, and coffee drinks made with beans from Mayorga, the venerable Montgomery County roaster. The from-scratch kitchen turns out a multicultural menu, but you can’t go wrong with anything that hails from the owners’ Salvadoran roots, such as the Salvadoreño Tipico brunch plate (black beans, crema, fried plantains, queso fresco, mini chorizo, eggs and homemade sourdough toast) in which every component hits a high note. Or simply order a latte and housemade tres leches cake, and you’ll leave happier than when you arrived.
8377 Snouffer School Road, Gaithersburg, 301-355-7144, gardeniascafe.com
La Poteria Local
Located in a nondescript Montgomery Village shopping center, La Poteria Local—owned by Monica Pulecio and Andres Londono—is a funky, endearing spot with serious coffee and fun Colombian street food. Don’t miss an empanada with your brew (made with puff pastry, the dough is light and flaky) and certainly try a pandebono, the disc-shaped cheese bread that can be ordered with an ooze of guava paste inside. To finish, those with a sweet tooth should opt for the Farmers Coffee, a black cup of Colombia’s Pergamino coffee brewed with sugarcane, cloves and cinnamon that’s simply divine.
19116 Montgomery Village Ave., Montgomery Village, 240-477-6636, lapoterialocal.com
Quaint & historic
District Café
In another life, District Cafe, a light, airy and lovely cafe, was a gas station, built in 1924. Fast forward nearly a century, and Solera Senior Living, the company that owns the 3-year-old Modena Reserve at Kensington senior living facility next door, renovated and restored the structure, retaining the original exterior, including the garage door and sign. (Solera bought the land from the Mizell family, who also owned a longtime lumber and hardware company; their former store now houses the facility’s spa, salon and gym.) District Cafe’s salads and sandwiches are made in-house at Modena, the beans come from Ceremony Coffee Roasters, and the drink menu includes a terrific version of hard-to-find iced Vietnamese coffee. Every couple of months, a different local artist’s works are featured for sale on the walls, and every day, residents from Modena mingle with those from the Kensington area, who make up the bulk of patrons. District Cafe spans generations in more ways than one.
10540 Metropolitan Ave., Kensington, 240-880-1024, districtcafemodena.com
Java Junction
Espresso at a train station may be the ticket for morning travelers, but Java Junction, located in the charming 1884 B&O Rail complex in Olde Towne Gaithersburg, is a destination unto itself. Operated for the past 21 years by Lauren Woo, the counter service shop—which sells coffee drinks, sandwiches and smoothies—is in the same National Register of Historic Places building that houses the original wainscoted waiting room. There, you can sip a Java Mocha amid the old ticket window, informational plaques and local artwork. There are non-caffeinated beverages for choo choo-loving kids who will want to come along and visit the Gaithersburg Community Museum’s B&O freight house next door, see a 1918 steam engine, and play in a red caboose stocked with rail-related games and costumes. If you’re a commuter catching a MARC train, however, you’ll need to grab a coffee and go.
5 S. Summit Ave., Gaithersburg, 301-330-0333
The Coffee Connoisseur
In her book God in a Cup: The Obsessive Quest for the Perfect Coffee, Chevy Chase author and journalist Michaele Weissman traveled to Nicaragua, Rwanda, Burundi, Ethiopia, Panama and Kenya to detail the stories of three passionate specialty coffee entrepreneurs. In the early 2000s, the men—from Counter Culture, Stumptown and Intelligentsia Coffee—were redesigning the way coffee was purchased, dealing directly with farmers and co-ops, rather than through commodity trading. Weissman got to tag along.
What emerged from her adventures extended beyond her book, published in 2008 by John Wiley & Sons. She developed a newfound appreciation for the complexities of coffee flavor, the effect of terroir, and the fact that with coffee—like all agricultural crops—anything can go wrong along the way. “This book made me realize that it’s amazing that anybody gets a decent cup of coffee,” says Weissman, who’s in her mid-70s. “It’s so complicated.”
Here are some tips and excerpts from a conversation over (very good) coffee at her Chevy Chase home:
How to scope out a coffee shop: Weissman suggests talking to the barista to get a feel for how seriously she/he takes the job; also ask where they buy their roasted beans.
Best drink to order at a coffee shop to judge quality: A pour over
How to best taste the flavors in coffee: First try it black, then (if desired) add milk.
Her favorite local coffee shops: Takoma Bev Co in Takoma Park and Bread Furst in D.C.’s Van Ness neighborhood
Her favorite espresso drink: Cappuccino
Number of cups of coffee she drinks per day: 2½
Coffee maker she uses: Technivorm Moccamaster
Coffee grinder she uses: Burr
Beans she often buys: Paper Plane Ethiopian from Bread Furst
Her take on Starbucks: The company “has trained the American palate that dark roasted coffee is good coffee, but the dark roasting is going to kill off some of the flavors.”
Her take on tea: “You can only be obsessive about so many things.”
This story appears in the November/December 2024 issue of Bethesda Magazine.
