The Best Coffee Shops for Working Remotely in Houston
For when you absolutely, positively need to be productive (and caffeinated).
Coffee culture is abuzz here in Houston (pun intended). Minimalist cafes rocking ethically sourced beans from around the globe, talented baristas armed with perfect pulls and masterful latte art, locally obsessed mini-empires with inhouse roasting rooms and scratchmade pastries—we’ve got it all, and then some. These grade-A grind shops are exactly where you want to get your caffeine on, whether you’re “working from home” or taking the day off to enjoy endless drips and doughnut dips.
Heights
Taking inspiration from coffee culture meccas like Seattle, Australia, and Costa Rica, this striking, design-forward coffee shop is more than just a neighborhood caffeine hub. It hosts weekly coffee classes, as well as pop-ups and collabs featuring some of Houston’s most beloved food vendors including Khoi Barbecue, Tlahuac Bakery, and Underground Creamery. Snag a seat here and settle in with a Macadamia Nut Milk Latte and a clear mind.
EaDo
You need Koffeteria’s pastries in your life. Owner and accomplished pastry chef Vanarin Kuch competed on Top Chef: Just Desserts and even got a Food & Wine nom for "Best New Pastry Chef” before opening up this artful cafe and bakery in 2019. Go for the Beef Pho Kolache, Everything Spiced Ham and Cheese Croissants, and Apple Kouign Amann, and stay for expertly crafted drinks like the Salty Cambodian, a house specialty made with sweetened condensed milk, house sourdough butter, and Maldon sea salt. On nicer days, post up on the cozy back patio it shares with Chapman & Kirby.
Montrose
You haven’t fully lived until you’ve experienced siphoned coffee. Made in a Walter White-looking glass bulb that uses halogen burners to gradually impart super unique notes into the beans, the coffee comes out strong and almost tea-like, perfect for kickstarting whatever project you’re tackling or just your day in general. Not feeling it? Siphon’s got all the usual suspects, too (espressos, lattes, drips, and teas, plus beer and wine), each flawlessly executed and made even better when paired with housemade pastries, daily quiche, and all-day tacos.
Garden Oaks/Oak Forest (& Upper Kirby)
This impossibly cool shop zeroes in on high-quality specialty coffees, even roasting its own small-batch beans inhouse and hosting DIY coffee classes. Pop into the newer, bigger location on 34th and climb up one story to grab a seat overlooking the industrial space upstairs. Now you can settle in with pour overs, seasonal lattes, nitro cold brews, and breakfast tacos from Tacos A Go Go. Another bonus? Les Ba'get’s irresistible banh mi are just a few doors down.
EaDo
Tucked away in a shipping container inside the Second Ward’s super slick repurposed Iron Works building, this part coffee lab-part cannabis shop is the kind of place you can definitely spend some time. Go for drinks steeped with CBD, Delta-8, cinnamon, and taro, then pair ‘em with Koffeteria pastries and killer tacos from Doña Licha’s, and hole up at a table or leather chair to take it all in.
Washington
Keeping Houstonians good and caffeinated since 2007, this cafe rocks mighty fine espresso pulls, a roster of locally sourced pastries, and roasts straight from sister operation Amaya Roasting Company. You’ll find the quintessential small shop coffee experience here: Tables filled with laptops and coffee dates, the scent of fresh grinds and warm spices filling the air, and friendly locals waiting in line for their morning pick-me-up.
Montrose
Make your way past the crazy construction going down across the street—The Montrose Collective will be sweet when it opens, promise—and you’ll find this tiny craft coffee stop is worth the (temporary) hassle. Let’s all help keep its doors open by frequenting it during this time, if not for the outside-the-box latte art and Koffeteria pastries, then for the freshly roasted beans from sibling company Fusion Beans and awesome collabs with local legends like Brash Brewing.
Greenway (& West University)
Cavo sources its beans from its very own Cleo Roasting Co., transforming them into drip, cold brew, espresso, and halogen siphoned delights. Couple your drinks with Cream Cheese Pound Cake, Breakfast Tacos, and Brownies a la Node; or go for lattes hit with things like oat milk and housemade bourbon cajeta syrup as you make yourself at home at your makeshift office for the day.
Montrose
Need a quiet place to get that screenplay done/finally started? Hit this Latin American-style coffee shop, tucked inside a charming house off Lower Westheimer. It’s garnered a loyal following thanks to flawless Café Cubanos, Café con Leches, and a Horchata Iced Latte that’s pretty much a requirement for surviving brutal Houston summers. With a focus on beans sourced directly right from Mexico, Central, and South America, the crew keeps things local by featuring a new area roaster every two months (and they also serve Katz Coffee on the regular). Fuel your latest project with a Cortadito and an Empanada, and daydream about a place way more relaxing than H-town when you need a break.
Heights, Downtown
This local darling started life as a roaster, putting out small batches of perfectly scorched artisan beans daily and supplying shops around the city & state. Nowadays, Boomtown has its own specialist java bars (one on 19th and two Downtown) where you'll find chatty locals on laptops, reliable Wi-Fi, a solid lineup of cafe foodstuffs, and talented baristas pulling big-bodied espressos, smoothly sweet milk & honey lattes, and addicting 12-hour cold-brewed toddys.
Montrose
Sure, this café is home to the world’s finest sausage, egg, and cheese breakfast biscuit – but it’s the actual coffee and love of all things local that makes it so cultishly adored. The magic all started with coffee wunderkind David Buehrer’s tiny Greenway Coffee bar in Greenway Plaza. Next, Buehrer and the now dissolved Clumsy Butcher restaurant group dreamt up this larger shop on Westheimer, and saying it was a hit is an understatement. Now under the umbrella of Underbelly Hospitality, Blacksmith’s meticulously sourced roasts are served via lattes, cappuccinos, and cortados alongside that fantastic biscuit -- which, seriously, you have to order. Grab a bar seat if you need an outlet, or settle outside on one of the patios if you want some fresh air.
EaDo
This sweet shop and eatery is one of the largest spaces on the list, with no shortage of seating, a laptop bar, and plenty of outlets, plus a wild assortment of sweets to keep you going from morning till midnight. Its coffee program runs the gamut from flat whites and nutty cortados to a creamy ca phe sua da, which is also available by the bottle. Pair your drink with pastries made fresh daily, including a rainbow of macarons and an 18 layer cake MADE OUT OF CREPES. There’s all-day savory stuff (and beer and wine), too.
Multiple locations
Got a serious project that’s bound to take some time? This cafe-wine bar hybrid is the perfect place to hunker down, with locations in the GOOF area, Spring Branch, and over at Levy Park in Upper Kirby. The mini-empire keeps things interesting by offering guest roasters in addition to its house beans… and also by keeping the beer and wine flowing. Get energized via lattes, pour overs, nitro cold brews, and bites like Grilled Cheeses and Churro Donuts.
Shady Acres
This karma-fueled shop works to better the lives of others “through good” coffee (get it?), as the team behind it has been serving hot meals to unhoused folks in Downtown Houston for over 25 years, eventually founding the Temenos Community Development Corporation to provide housing to those previously experiencing homelessness. To boot, a portion of your Amaya Roasting drip coffee or Chai Latte will help with that, and you can further enjoy it basking in the sunshine out on the patio.
Upper Kirby
Clean, bright, and modern, this tiny cafe looks like it might’ve been designed by Joanna Gaines (it wasn’t). It’s not all about the looks, though the Italian coffee is on point; there are breakfast croissants, souvlaki plates, and pastries from spanakopita to a weekly changing pound cake. To top it off, all the outlets have USB ports, and the Wi-Fi is probably more stable than your current relationship.
Theater District
A reincarnation of the late Taft Street Coffee, this coffee refuge is housed in a refurbished paper factory beside the Ecclesia Church, offering an open and airy space with tons of seating and reachable wall plugs. Not only does Paper Co. take care to responsibly source its on-site-roasted beans, but 100% of its profits go toward creating space for and feeding the homeless. Sip on pour-overs, foamy macchiatos, and flat whites, and feel damn good while you do so.