Do you like blonde roasts or need a beautiful space to get some work done?

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The first thing to draw me in to a coffee shop is usually the smells - pastries, coffee, and maybe the nutty wooden smell of roasting if I’m lucky enough to be in a roastery.

Walking into Rose City Coffee however, I was struck by the dark cherry-wood and soft-touch-textured metal furnishing, the brick walls, and the wide-open cafe space - there are no walls or furniture to obstruct your view of one side of the cafe from the other, combining with the floor-to-celeing windows to make the space feel larger than it is.

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I had the Floribunda, a medium blend with chocolate and floral flavor comps… and that’s about all I could find about the roast between asking in the shop and looking online. This is obviously not an espresso specialty shop, but my doppio was still alright.

I got quite a bit of sourness up front, without much darkness or bitterness to balance it out. If you’re a fiend for blonde roasts, this would be a pretty fun place to stop - but the menu seems to emphasize lattes, so I don’t know that I would recommend this spot to a huge fan of blonde espresso.

Personally, I would have loved a darker roast and a LOT more information about the beans, but espresso isn’t every shop’s emphasis, and that’s alright too. Their food options looked (and smelled) amazing as well.

Rose City will live in my head as the place to go if I need to stay put somewhere for all day - great food, decent coffee, and a free-feeling space that I could spend a whole workday at.

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On top of the food, coffee, and environment, the friend that recommended this place to me remarked that they have live music on Saturdays! The community events add to Rose City’s vibe, which leaves it feeling remarkably like the Flying M coffee shop in the Boise, Idaho area, my all-around favorite shop from my time living there.

The Flying M will always have a special place in my heart, so I can’t help but feel sentimental cracking open my laptop to get some work done in the refreshing Rose City seating area. It’s worth stopping by if you’re in the SE part of the city (especially on a Saturday 😊).

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Rose City Coffee homepage

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The Flying M homepage