Scarlett Roots

Although the coffee cups appear photorealistic, I used colored pencils and alcohol markers with an earthy color palette to capture the essence of a local coffee shop in Omaha.

There are seemingly an endless number of coffee shops in Omaha and I’ve gotten the chance to go to many of them. Three years ago, my mom came to me with a plan to visit an Omaha (or surrounding area) coffee shop each Friday over my summer vacation. Though I was initially hesitant, this quickly became our Friday tradition and we have stuck to it for the past three summers. 

We have gotten the opportunity to visit shops all the way from the suburbs of Omaha to downtown. It is amazing the sheer number of coffee establishments in the area. I tend to get a mocha latte at each location. Though I often get the same thing, there are a few shops where the coffee is particularly memorable. For instance, I really like the coffee at Blue Line in Dundee and I’m a big fan of Hardy’s coffee. 

While the coffee is an important part of the visit, I tend to remember the style of a coffee shop or the feeling that it gave me better than the actual drink. It is fascinating to see the different “vibes” that shops try to create (either intentionally or unintentionally). There seems to be an obligatory atmosphere that many coffee shops try to replicate. A lot of times shops in newer buildings try to imitate the style of older structures. Some add brick texture or try to weather the fixtures in the building. While there are many great new coffee shops, there is something special about a coffee shop that has gained its atmosphere organically. Coffee shops like the aforementioned Blue Line, as well as 13th Street Coffee and Tea have the style of an old coffee shop because they have actually been around for a long time. 

Another coffee shop that stands out in my memory is Astute Coffee. The coffee shop is contained within a circular rotunda style building across from Omaha Central High School. It is one of those buildings you drive by on the road and always wonder what is inside. Café Postale stands out not because of its shape but because of what it used to be. The building that the cafe and coffee shop is in used to be a railway station for distributing mail. The cafe sits practically across the street from the Durham museum. 

Many of the coffee shops we only visit once but some have become favorites that we return to many times. One of those is a coffee shop called Moon Hollow. My mom and I first went to Moon Hollow about a year ago but we have returned many times. Moon Hollow has become one of my moms favorite’s (she likes their gluten free scones) and she often goes there on her days off.

Each week my mom makes a social media post with pictures of our coffee shop adventure. Because of this we have gotten many recommendations of where to go. One recommendation we constantly got was Archetype Coffee. Eventually we went. Archetype is a local Omaha coffee shop with several locations. We have been to the location in the Millwork Commons building as well as gotten the chance to visit a friend at the Farnam street location. Archetype seems like the one coffee shop that all Omaha coffee drinkers visit at least once. 

Out of all the Coffee shops we have visited it is hard to have a favorite. They are all very different. If anything, our tradition is less about the shop and more about the weekly exploration of Omaha. Visiting coffee shops has allowed us to explore parts of town we might not normally venture to. I am excited to continue the coffee shop tradition again next summer.