Finding Third Wave Joe

If you’ve spent the majority of this quarantine hustlin’ from your laptop in the four corners of your house, it’s probably time for a change of pace (and a cup of coffee with the right bean:water ratios). 

Personally, I don’t mind that every time I want to get deep into a workflow, or am dumping out the contents of my brain onto a Google Doc, one of my cats decides to hop onto the desk and traipse along my keyboard. A girl can multitask. A cat in my lap is basically a free space heater in the winter months here in Austin. 

But stretching your legs out somewhere, with different colors (and different drinks) from your home workspace can be beneficial to your workflow. For starters, a change of pace can inspire new content or a fresh perspective. Also, changing into clothes that are presentable for the outside world reminds you that you are indeed a human, and it can launch your brain into work mode. 

Here are some of the coffeeshops that I’ve been bringing my mind, my body, my laptop, and not my cats to: 

Native Hostel 

I’m partial to a place that comes stacked with caffeine AND cocktails. I like that gentle lift from my morning cappucino, a hard kick from my afternoon americano, and after a long day’s work of copywriting, calls, and coordinating, a beautiful negroni is the perfect company to some reflection on what I’ve accomplished. Gratitude is essential - and so is a good gin drink to go with it. 

Neighborhood: East Austin  

Hours: 8 AM - 4 PM Monday - Wednesday | 8 AM - 11 PM Thursday - Sunday

Manana Coffee 

I'm a sucker for any space that successfully serves as an urban sidewalk portal to sanctuary. There are a couple places on South Congress that do this well, one of them being Liz Lambert's Hotel San Jose and the other being Manana Coffee. There's this feeling of being transported to a place significantly more zen than the rest of busy, bustling, tourist-infested South Congress when you walk into the cafe. The design of the cafe itself is beautiful -- lots of wood accenting and beautiful blue tiles wrapped around the bar, high ceilings, huge windows, cleverly built-in seating of all sorts alongside the window and in nooks and corners of the cafe as well as the obligatory coffeehouse fixture of a long communal table. 

The space is perfect for a whole range of patrons, from the lone artist who wants a corner to herself for a session of solitude and sketching, to the friends who want to mix work and play over lattes at the long table, to the writer who needs to siphon out a long draft over a hot Americano. There's an outdoor patio that connects to the rest of the hotel as well as a range of other shops and restaurants.

The coffee itself is fantastic. They serve Revelator coffee here! The baristas clearly know their craft and are very friendly. There is a great selection of delicate pastries, bananas, and a fridge of paletas and bottled alternative milks from Fronks, Still and sparkling water on tap for free for the espresso aficionado who wants to cleanse her palate pre-drink, and a beautifully built condiment bar that encourages you to recycle and compost what you can.

Neighborhood: South Congress

Hours: 7 AM - 7 PM 

Seating Options: Outdoor patio seating nestled between the South Congress Hotel and the cafe itself. You can also take your coffee to go and walk down South Congress!

The Hive

Above-and-beyond friendly and helpful customer service, a plethora of indoor and outdoor seating options, fast wifi, and absolutely everything you could ask for on a menu. You could easily spend an entire day here caffeinating, snacking, working on your laptop, reading, picking out groceries to bring home, enjoying a drink with a friend, etc. - and their hours are extremely convenient. 8AM to midnight. 

In “normal” non-COVID times, this place doubles as a daycare and coworking center. For now, children are allowed to play outside but their regular daycare services are on pause at this time. 

Neighborhood: South Austin

Hours: 8 AM - MIDNIGHT 

Wood-Fired Drip Coffee at Summermoon in Austin, TX 

Possibly the best drip coffee I’ve ever had. 

Third wave coffee aspires to the highest form of culinary appreciation of coffee, so that one may appreciate subtleties of flavor, varietal, and growing region – similar to other complex consumable plant-derived products such as wine, tea, chocolate, and cannabis. Distinctive features of third wave coffee include direct trade coffee, high-quality beans (see specialty coffee for scale), single-origin coffee (as opposed to blends), lighter roasts, and latte art. It also includes revivals of alternative methods of coffee preparation, such as vacuum coffee and pour-over brewing devices such as the Chemex and Hario V60.

The term "Third Wave" was coined in 2002, and refers chiefly to the American phenomenon, particularly from the 1990s and continuing today, but with some roots in the 1980s, 1970s, and 1960s. Similar movements exist in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Scandinavia. More broadly, third wave coffee can be seen as part of thespecialty coffee movement.