Dogwood

For those of you in Minnesota who don’t know the name Dogwood, it is probably the most well-known roaster in Minnesota. On all of our travels, from New York to Seattle and Portland, when we mention we’re from Minneapolis the baristas will always name-drop Dogwood.

So good for them. You’ll have to excuse my snarkiness in the following, but Dogwood makes me grumpy. Not because they aren’t a great company with quality coffee and skilled baristas, but because they are winning and I tend to root for the underdog whenever possible. So while I’m not rooting for Dogwood, it is impossible to deny how great they are at what they do.

CJ and I have been exploring Minnesota coffee for a long time now, but had never actually been to the Dogwood shop in Calhoun Square. Before this recent visit (and before Husker Brew), the last time we had tried Dogwood was at Rustica Bakery, when Bull Run and Dogwood were still the same company. In fact, CJ and I used to buy Dogwood espresso exclusively.

We were prompted to finally visit the coffeehouse when we attended Husker Brew. After the cupping, Dogwood was fixing pour overs and espresso drinks at the door of the after-party. After trying the espresso at Husker Brew, CJ and I decided we needed to make the trip to uptown.

The Dogwood coffee shop is a hipster haven. The exposed brick walls, and prominently featured local artwork served as the background to steel tables and chairs filled with more Buddy Holly non-perscription glasses than you could shake a stick at.

The counter set-up is neat at Dogwood. The long counter provides for orders to be given in the center and espresso drinks served up on the stage-right end while the brewed coffee is served up on the stage-left end. They were prominently displaying their new Neon espresso–but hold on to your skinny jeans my hipster friends, the different colors do not indicate different blends. Rather, Dogwood has just tapped into the neon trend and given the customer a reason to collect-’em-all!

We ordered a cortado (which consequently they interpreted as a short cap–btw, this keeps happening to us, why do coffee shops make short caps when asked to make cortados? If you can answer this question for us it would be much appreciated) and an Ethiopia Harrar (CJ’s favorite).

It was… delicious, my friends, delicious. The cortado rivaled that of Kopplins–although, let’s not be rash, Kopplins still has the best cortado/latte I have ever had–and the Harrar was so wonderfully blueberry, without a hint of acidity, smooth from first taste to last swallow.

Dogwood knows what they are doing, fellow coffee connoisseurs, and it is no wonder they have such a following.