Northern Vessel has a modern yet warm atmosphere; in addition to coffee, it serves cold brews, teas and baked goods.
New: Northern Vessel opened in November in a sunny south-facing building at 1201 Keosauqua Way, and it’s a great spot to ease into a chilly winter day. With built-in blonde benches where you can perch with your latte and laptop, the modern space is a perfect venue for casual meetups.
The caffeine hub serves cold brews, teas and signatures such as its Cheerio Latte sweetened with honey and cinnamon. Find fresh baked goods from Savor the Rise in Indianola as well as to-go salads and wraps from New World Kitchen. It’s open daily.
Newer: Mayalu Coffee opened with the new year in a former dry-cleaning spot at 4226 Fleur Drive. Its Nepali-born owner, Deep Paudel, named the shop after his mother, Maya, and daughter, nicknamed Lulu. The mashup, mayalu, means “beloved” or “sweetheart” in Nepali.
The interior is still developing, with big new windows out front and a friendly Nepal-meets-Iowa mural by artist Reagan Park from East High School. The drive-through is up and running (right across the street from a busy Starbucks). Inside or out, you can order a few pastries and all the usual coffee drinks plus a few with global twists, like the masala coffee, matcha latte or Nepali chiya, a frothy, fortifying mix of tea and milk. The shop is open daily.
Coming soon: Chain & Spoke is tentatively scheduled to open in March at 515 28th St., just off Ingersoll Avenue. The shop was inspired by coffee-bike shops in Minneapolis and Bentonville, Arkansas, but has a distinctly local appeal: The 1925 building once housed a print shop and still has wall-to-wall windows and plenty of natural light. Their cold-brew samples were a big hit at the Iowa Bike Expo this past weekend.
