Savannah Coffee: Squares, Shade, and Slow Mornings

The roaster-café that has been defining Savannah's specialty coffee scene since before specialty coffee was the phrase people used. The Liberty St location is the flagship. The single-origins rotate and the baristas can explain them. A serious operation in a city that doesn't always take things seriously.

On the main shopping street and still worth your time. Coffee Fox has figured out how to serve the tourist crowd without losing the quality that keeps locals coming back. The latte art is not decorative, it's diagnostic: the barista who takes time with the pour cares about the rest of the cup.

A Savannah institution that has appeared in more local conversation than any café in the city. Clary's does the full breakfast well and the coffee without pretension. The kind of place that has earned its regulars over decades.

The community café that Thomas Square built its creative identity around. Live music, good coffee, the kind of mismatched furniture that signals the shop has been here long enough to not care about interior design trends. Exactly what a neighborhood coffee shop should be.