Choosing a cafe can be a very complicated, time-consuming process. On a scale of one to 10, you rate the establishment's coffee, then their customer service, then ambience. Next, you add the numbers, e.g. 8 (coffee) + 7 (customer service) + 9 (ambience). Now divide this number by three, and you have the Personal Relative Worth Cafe Index (PRWCI).
Then you say to hell with it and go wherever is closest.
But even that isn't easy in Dublin. There are too many cafes to choose from. Like anyone else, I go to cafes for different reasons. Sometimes I go to write, often with a laptop. At those times I require a quiet place with great ambience: I have to nurse the muse as well as my caffeine addiction. When meeting friends, I like a place that's a little more lively. Other times I may want food. This can be tricky - there's a difference between a restaurant that serves coffee and a cafe that serves food - and just because a place calls itself a cafe doesn't mean it is one. Further, there's a difference between a pub that serves coffee and a cafe that serves alcohol.
It goes without saying that wherever I go, the coffee must be good, and to this end Dublin doesn't disappoint. Virtually all of the cafes have good coffee. In many cases, however, it's too strong. I like a good strong cup of Joe as much as the next guy. But I want to have an aroma and a tasty bouquet, a fresh cup of Jamaica Blue Mountain or even Colombian is about all I ask in life. Too many cafes feel it's their duty to serve macho coffee - strong as Schwarzenegger and bitter as Hillary Clinton.
My overall favourite cafe is probably Brewbaker's (9+9+9) on Frederick Street. It claims to serve: "Probably the Best Cup of Coffee in Dublin" and they're probably right. Furthermore, the cafe is friendly, spacious and full of light, and has a charming non-smoking room downstairs.
Further east, you'll find a lovely little basement hideaway, Caper's Cafe (9+9+8) on Leinster Street South. Caper's has a distinct Italian flavour, right down to the lunchtime pannini. Around the corner, West Coast Coffee Company (9+9+9), at Lincoln Place, lives up to its name, with a Golden Gate logo, cheerful ambience, and a dark, rich brew - all reminiscent of the US, although it's Irish-owned. It's opening a new cafe on Camden Street in April, which is good news. When I'm in the mood for a lighter brew, for my money, the best cup of coffee in Dublin can be found in a little hideaway on Aungier Street called Yum Yums (9.5+9+8). It has no frills - just good, fresh, flavorful coffee with a fine aroma and a clean taste. The cafe is small, homey, and friendly. The Avalon Cafe (7+7+10), just down the street, is more popular, probably because it is such a great room - it looks like a kind of coffee temple. Like Cafe en Seine (8+8+10), on Dawson Street, it's the kind of place you take out-of-towners when you're showing off. But I've often encountered long lines in Avalon, and the coffee is nothing special. I'll bypass it for Yum-Yums every time. I also bypass Kaffe Moka (8+5+8.5) in Rathmines, though I live nearby. It's a hip joint, but the service just ain't happening. Its other restaurant, on William Street, suffers from the same problem.
Cafe Rouge (7+7+9) on Andrews Street, has a distinctive French flavour in ambience and coffee. Just up the street, Butler's Chocolate Cafe (9.5+8+8) also has a French feeling, though more reminiscent of the gilded establishments on the Boulevard Champs Elysee s. Owned by the Irish Chocolate Company, it offers a treasure trove of fine chocolates. The coffee is excellent, but it's not a place to linger, like Cafe Rouge.
Harvey's Coffee House (7+9+6), on Trinity Street, appears to be the most popular cafe in that area, and I like it too, though only when I'm hungry or looking for a quick pick-me up - the coffee is jet fuel.
In Temple Bar, I love Cafe Gertrude (8+10+10), a perfect place for writing and meeting friends. I have not yet been to Cafe Irie, and probably won't until I have a midlife crisis and wake up in dreadlocks. In some ways, the Winding Stair (8+10+9), across the river, may be the most celebrated cafe in all of Dublin, at least among writers. It's a literate old loft with stellar views of the Ha'Penny bridge (providing the ancient, uneven windows aren't too fogged). In a similar vein, the cafe in Hodges Figgis (8+7+8) is a lovely place to lull away an afternoon, sifting through a pile of books you have no intentions of buying.
As far as I'm concerned, the best coffee shop in the Grafton Street area is Gloria Jean's (9+9+9), though it's too busy for me to do any writing there. My numbers on Kaffee Klatch in Westbury Mall say it all: (8+5+5). Costa Coffee, just down the street - er, hall - is much better (8.5+8+7).
And then there's Bewley's, on Grafton Street. The whole place is very confusing to me. It is seemingly a bastion of Irish history, yet it looks like a mall and bears the name "Oriental Cafe". Huh? The part about the history is certainly true: the last time I was there I had a cup of coffee that seemed so old, James Joyce himself probably had a cup from the same pot. However, I grudgingly admit to seeking refuge from the Temple Bar crowds on many a Saturday night in Bewley's, and was glad I did.
The rumour on the street is that Bewley's will soon be challenged by Starbucks, the American company which has over 2,000 outlets. The company has no "immediate plans" to invade Ireland, but that's only a technicality. It's coming. Having purchased Seattle Coffee Company, it now has 76 shops in England. By its own admission, Starbucks plans to have 500 stores in Europe by the year 2003. If I know anything about Starbucks, that's a conservative figure. Starbucks attempts to give you a place that is somewhere between your office and your home, according to Yeap Soon Bng, a company spokesperson.
A cafe should indeed be a special entity in your life, but it hardly needs to be Starbucks to be familiar and comfortable. Many places in Dublin fill the bill. If anything, I'd rather see a greater number of less formal cafes - the kind of place they have on the TV show Friends, with an eclectic assortment of chairs and an arty, Greenwich Village flavour. And of course Courtney Cox.
In fairness, Starbucks is a progressive-minded firm that's good to its employees, champions customer service, gives something back to the community, and serves decent (albeit darkly-roasted) coffee. Then why is it so icky? Because familiarity breeds contempt. I, for one, don't want to see every city in Europe look like every city in the States, with a Starbucks, Gap, and McDonalds on every corner.
I guess that's why one of my favourite coffee places in Dublin is Kylemore Cafe (5+7+5) on O'Connell Street. Though all of my friends think I'm nuts, I love this place. It has a salt-of-the-earth feel that's the antithesis of a cafe. It has no airs, no pretensions. You won't find British bond buyers or passionate poets within these smoky confines. Yet I imagine it's what Dublin used to be like before there was any Celtic Tiger, a decent working class city, and I like to go there because it's the only cafe in Dublin that lets me feel like I'm not in New York.