This beautiful cafe popped up on my instagram feed and I had to visit. Not only was it uniquely beautiful and roasts its own coffee, but it’s called “manhole” coffee, and I was recently made a moderator for a manhole covers around the world group and take many photos of my own.
Manhole Coffee wooden sign over the staircase leading downstairsview downstairsclassy Manhole Coffee rugManhole Coffee poster of a regal lionmannequin torso wearing a white dressthe first landing of the stairsmannequin torso wearing a blue suit topframed photos of various British things, such as the Beatles, and several kings
To enter, you have to go inside the building and down two flights of stairs. The walls are decorated with framed photos from another era, with a very British vibe.
the coffee barcrystal chandelier over a large tableworking fountain with angellots of fake leaves, candles, and a wooden deer head posted on the wallchess game, sadly for display onlymirror, lamp and more framed photos of royaltythe second “floor” which is not real, and all the books from floor to ceilingdisplay of various objects including a telephone and bottle of some kind of (fake) alcoholquill pen and glass bottle of (fake) alcoholthe British telephone booth, full of booksstreet signs and lots of fake plantsBritish post office box with Manhole Coffee’s hours listedtelephone inside the telephone booth, surrounded by bookstwo seated table near the bookcaseanother view of the large tableanother view of the bookcasethe bookcase again; I was sad I couldn’t go up thereclose-up of the bookshelvestable of random things for sale, with some melted candles as wellpianomelted candles on the pianobulletin board above the piano filled with business cards pinned to ita brown leather chair and lamp under a flag featuring Manhole’s logo, oddly in the hallway just outside the toiletssleek black roastershelf with things for sale, as well as some booksanother shelf of things for sale, such as cups and teabook pages pinned to the wallmannequin torso of a black suit and hatred flowers beside the ordering kioskview of the space as a wholelarge wooden gear clock with lots of fake plants
When you enter, your senses are overloaded with the sheer maximalist beauty of the space. There are crystal chandeliers, a working fountain, books floor to ceiling (as well as on a fake second floor), a British telephone booth, a piano, some Harry Potter memorabilia, and then the financiers catch your eyeβ¦
I’ve gotten to try a lot of different pastries from my time in coffee. I thought the canele was disgusting at first, because I expected chocolate, but after a dream in which I ate one, I tried it again and it became my favorite pastry; I kept coming back for the salted maple pecan bars they gave us on our first day of training at Blue Bottle; and financiers were the cute, slightly almond-flavored little two-bite pick-me-ups after a mid-morning rush.
But the financiers at Manhole Coffee are not two-bite pick-me-ups. They are massive loaves of deliciousness, and I would recommend buying a few different flavors and then sharing with your friends.
I can’t remember what kind of financiers these weredark chocolate and custard (I believe) financiercinnamon financierscrunchy cheese crumble financierpastry caseour order, including complimentary chocolatemy dark chocolate financiermy Ethiopian pour-overmy order
I chose the dark chocolate financier and an Ethiopian pour-over, both which exceeded my expectations. I sort of expect these themed, beautiful, aesthetically-pleasing cafes to serve up crap coffee and dry pastries, and I was pleasantly surprised.
I highly recommend visiting this cafe. I’d come as soon as they open at noon, as I imagine it gets pretty busy in the afternoon.
Koffee & Kpop 
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