PennyCup Coffee

House roasting and a bagel counter

PennyCup roasts its own coffee in small batches and the cafés pour it, which is the through-line across the company’s Asheville shops. The name nods to the penny universities of the 1800s, and the house line about coffee, community and curious conversations plays out in a room built more for sitting than for turnover. The roasting operation dates from 2014, a downtown shop followed in 2016, and the north Asheville café came later. Named coffees rotate across origin and blend, including Haiti Thiotte Emerald Reserve, Nicaragua Segovia Restoration Roast, Peru Cajamarca, El Salvador Santa Ana, Colombia Huila, Mexico Chiapas, Ethiopia Yirgacheffe, Railroad Espresso, Locomotive Blend and Pullman Car Decaf. The identity is coffee-first rather than full-kitchen: a bagel-led counter with house-made pastries beside it and no pretence of a dining room.

Armchairs, counters and a room you can think in

Seating is mixed on purpose: armchairs, tables, counters and stools, with window and bar seats, a lounge area and some outdoor space at the back. That makes the room adaptable, so a short espresso, a laptop afternoon, a bagel with a friend and a quiet pause all fit on the same floor. Staff come across as patient, knowledgeable and unassuming, and the music is unpredictable in a good way but kept low enough not to intrude. One guest summed the room up as somewhere you can hear yourself think, which is the most useful thing to know before choosing where to work. It reads as a neighbourhood gathering place rather than a transactional counter.

Order the honey lavender latte, then add a bagel

The honey lavender latte is the recurring order, and the Northside version puts the same lavender and honey build on oat milk. Matcha lattes come up often and are made strong, while tea runs to a whole-leaf jasmine green served properly rather than as an afterthought. On the coffee side, Haiti Thiotte Emerald Reserve is the bag worth asking about: grown in Creole gardens among tropical fruit and plants, sun-dried, and carrying notes of caramelised sugar, jasmine, graham cracker and peach. For food the bagels do the heavy lifting, including the Mediterranean, lox and avocado versions and the hot bagel sandwiches, with house-made pastries for something smaller and pre-made Taco Billy tacos at the north Asheville café.