Full disclosure, we are co-owners of Charming Beard Coffee and Josh is the CEO.  We are big fans of the place, but we’re extremely biased.

Charming Beard Coffee’s concept of co-habitating with Finca (and calling it La Barba) was conceived long before Scott Evans owned the first floor of 327 West 200 South.  When Finca was across the street from Liberty Heights Fresh, Josh and Scott we’re going to rearrange Finca’s dining room and make a place for Charming Beard to have a shop.  Scott put the project on hold and brought it back up after the purchase of the new location was final.Opening a coffee shop in SLC is a fairly unsettling endeavor with the lack of per capita coffee drinkers and presence of other great local shops (we’re looking at you No Brow, D’Bolla and the Rose Establishment).  From the beginning Charming Beard had designs on opening retail space in the heart of downtown but they knew for it to work, a strong synergy was necessary to create buzz and get coffee drinkers in the door.

Along with serving Charming Beard Coffee, they serve pastries and churros from Finca, Mezzo Drinking Chocolate and Tikal Chocolate Teas, The Queens’ Tea, and custom ceramics from Basin Goods.  The place was designed by architect Jared Wright (one of Charming Beard’s 9 investors) and the equipment is serviced by the one and only Gabe Jessop of Keep it Brewing.  Iron work was done by Blackridge Metal with furniture from CG Sparks, flowers from Native Flowers and a few accoutrements from European Treasures.

Charming Beard is always looking for ways to collaborate with other local businesses.  La Barba embodies elements of the ideals, but much more is to come.

327 West 200 South / M – F : 7a – midnight, Sa – Su 8a – midnight / inside Finca

In case, you didn’t know, Alchemy Coffee opened up a second location near the Capitol.   We enjoyed a coffee there pre-brunch at Em’s one morning then have been back a few times since.  A few items to note – Amaretto Green Tea Lattes, Sweet Potato Muffins (served toasted!), and high end coffee (straight up Americanos or Cappuccinos are great here.)  The service is beyond friendly and helpful and the atmosphere is quiet and peaceful.  It’s a new favorite of ours that we had to share here with you!

Alchemy Coffee

271 N Center Street

Josh and I have a new little date spot in Salt Lake, Tea Grotto.  Though we’re not huge tea drinkers at home, besides my new matcha green tea obsession, we do however like to go out for tea. We used to frequently visit the old English tea house, Elizabeth’s, but since it’s been gone, we hadn’t revisited our tea dates.

When I was pregnant we had this ongoing tradition that after every doctor’s appointments we would go out for a little treat.  After one appointment we decided our treat would be tea.  Not knowing any great tea spots, I did remember that there was a tea house next door to Pig and a Jelly Jar. So we ventured over near Liberty Park to try out this new-to-us tea house.

After walking in and then having just a few sips of our selected teas, we already had made plans of returning.  Maybe Tea Grotto would be our new spot for tea dates. On this first visit I kept to my favorite and ordered their Matcha Latte, which was not as hot as I would have liked but the flavor was just perfect.  They also have a variety of sugars and natural sweeteners to add to the drinks, my favorite being the sugar cane cubes. Josh tried a fruit tea which came in a tea kettle with a couple little tea cups.  We both enjoyed the flavor of his tea and felt it went perfect with a little sweet bite.

We couldn’t resist trying their matcha pound cake so we ordered one of these too.  The little green cake was not overly sweet with a perfect amount of sweet icing on top, which we found out was all vegan.  Its always a mystery to me when I find a pastry or baked good that could so easily be disguised as a guilty treat but then is revealed to be more healthy than I thought, though I’m sure there was a decent amount of sugar.

The interior of Tea Grotto is comfortable, as we found it easy to sit and stay awhile as we sipped our teas.  We’re excited to discover a new spot to resume our special tea dates, and with the amount of tea selections we have many new discoveries in store.

Tea Grotto

401 East 900 South
Monday -Thursday: 10am-9pm
Friday & Saturdays:  10am-10pm
Sundays: 10am-6pm