Verb Coffee Roasters

A rotating single-origin board

The board changes because the roastery behind the counter keeps buying in small lots, so the cafe pours whatever is current rather than one fixed house espresso. Recent coffees have run through washed Typica Mejorado from El Alisal in Ecuador, washed Pacas from La Peña in Honduras, washed heirloom from Hambatu Goro in Ethiopia, a washed Chiroso from Colombia and a Kenyan SL 28, SL 34 and Ruiru 11 from Kihuyo in Nyeri. Naturals appear too, including a Pink Bourbon from Colombia’s Picudo. The El Alisal lot is the one described in most detail: Quilanga in Loja, grown at 1,900 metres, washed, with peach, apricot and Pink Lady apple in the cup. Geisha turns up more than once, from Ecuador’s La Noria and Peru’s La Miel, alongside a semi-washed Colombian and a washed Caturra from Peru.

A small cafe attached to a working roastery

The room is compact and modern, a neighbourhood cafe with a roastery behind it rather than a restaurant with coffee attached. Service is friendly and polished, and hot milk drinks arrive with sparkling water alongside, which is the sort of detail that tells you where the attention goes. Retail bags sit next to the bar, so the cafe doubles as the roastery’s shopfront.

Food stays breakfast-forward instead of running to a full kitchen. Breakfast burritos are the substantial order, the bacon one most often, with pastries from Dry Storage and cookies filling out the case. Longmont Dairy milk goes into the milk drinks. It suits a book and a morning better than a long lunch.

Start with a flat white and the salted cookie

A flat white with the salted chocolate chip cookie is the order that fits the place: espresso and pastry, nothing complicated. A cappuccino works the same way, and the sparkling water served alongside it makes the milk drinks read cleaner than they would on their own.

To taste the roasting more directly, take drip coffee or a pour over, where the current lots do the talking and the choice is usually wider than one option. For a bigger visit, pair the coffee with a breakfast burrito. For a sweeter one, the chocolate chip cookies anchor the order. The through-line is the sourcing: washed lots from Ecuador, Ethiopia, Colombia and Kenya, Geisha from Peru and Ecuador, and a natural Pink Bourbon when it comes round.