Kirkwood Coffee and Mornings: Where the Neighborhood Starts the Day

I have shown houses in Metro Atlanta for more than 20 years, and I have learned that the morning coffee stop tells you more about a neighborhood than any listing description. Kirkwood starts its day on foot, and the coffee blocks do the work. Here is where I send buyers, and where you will find me between showings.

Start in the Kirkwood core

Taproom Coffee on Hosea L. Williams Drive is the anchor, full stop. Good espresso, a room that catches the morning light, and a steady stream of strollers, dogs, and laptops. A few doors down, Dulce Vegan Bakery & Cafe does vegan pastries, coffee, and sandwiches to go, which is the fast answer on school mornings. If you have time to sit, point yourself toward Sun in My Belly on College Avenue for a real Kirkwood breakfast: the room is worth the wait on weekends.

A short walk over to EAV

East Atlanta Village is close enough that Kirkwood folks treat it as a second coffee district. Bellwood Coffee on Glenwood Avenue is a neighborhood roaster with a warm room and a back patio, and Joe's Coffeehouse EAV on Flat Shoals Avenue is the classic diner-counter show with breakfast all day. Right next to Bellwood, the Victorian pairs plants and coffee in one bright room, which is exactly what it sounds like and it works.

Edgewood and Decatur, when you roam

A couple of miles north, San Francisco Coffee Roasting Company on DeKalb Avenue in Edgewood has been roasting coffee for years and pulls a great crowd, and Foxtail Coffee in the Edgewood retail block is a newer, modern counter. Over toward Decatur, Oakview Coffee on East Lake Drive is the quiet one, good for a laptop and a corner table with no rush.

When people ask what the neighborhood is really like, I do not give them a stat sheet. I tell them to do a Saturday morning: coffee at Taproom, a pastry at Dulce Vegan, and the walk up to Bessie Branham Park. That sixty minutes tells you everything.