Bozeman, MT: Coffeeshops

I’m a coffee and tea junkie and love to work out of coffeeshops, so here are a few of the places I checked out over my week, with my ratings!

Top Choice: Wild Crumb

• Wifi: 5/5
• Outlets: 2/5
• Music: N/A
• Ambiance: 5/5
• Comfort: 3/5
• Food: 5/5
• Coffee/Tea: 4/5

This was my Day 2 coffee shop and it really good.

Wild Crumb is a bakery in the “brewery historic district” of Bozeman, nestled across the street from a really good looking food truck (which almost lured me away) and a mill turned art gallery. It’s more primarily a bakery than a coffee shop but they have good wifi, coffee, and a large selection of teas.

Their breads looked amazing and I’ve definitely been in Seattle for too long since $1-6 for an artisan loaf blows me away (in Seattle it’s hard to even get a half loaf for that price).

They have a rotating selection of sandwiches and today’s were portobello (balsamic onions, swiss, arugula, and garlic aioli) and turkey (sprouts, havarti, pickled red onion, and basil aioli). They both looked yummy but I had to go with the mixed berry cream cheese danish, which did not disappoint! In addition, they had mini passion fruit tarts, strawberry rhubarb pie by the slice, macarons, tea cakes, scones, brownies, and more all of which looked extremely tempting.

In addition to having the glass bakery display of my dreams, the whole shop was really adorably decorated (I might call it rustic chic, heavy on the chic) with a mix of peonies and fresh-cut wildflowers on every table and metal chairs that had different colored (and very comfortable) heart shaped cushions.

The only downside of the locale that I found was limited outlets but this was still hands down my favorite work spot so far and I hope I’ll have time to return!

2nd Place: Rockford Coffee

• Wifi: 5/5
• Outlets: 5/5
• Music: 5/5
• Ambiance: 4/5
• Comfort: 2/5
• Food: 3/5
• Coffee/Tea: 5/5

Rockford Coffee was a pleasant but somewhat sterile environment. Good coffee with some snacks available and chill music playing at a reasonable volume. My main markdowns here were the height of the tables and chairs made for somewhat awkward positioning (the tables were a bit too high) but the outlet availability was great with easy outlet access from any table.

3rd Place: Treeline Coffee Roasters

• Wifi: 5/5
• Outlets: 2/5
• Music: 4/5
• Ambiance: 5/5
• Comfort: 3/5
• Food: 3/5
• Coffee/Tea: 5/5

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After Wild Crumb closed at 3, I moved over to Treeline, which was just a few doors down.

Treeline Coffee Roasters is located in a lovely, airy building, ideal for getting some work done, though also perplexingly short on outlets (fortunately, my laptop battery held out just until their closing time of 5PM).

I don’t usually order mixed coffee drinks but I’m a sucker for anything rose, so I ordered the “Kiss from a Rose,” a mix of coffee, rose essence, maple, and some kind of non-dairy creamer I’m forgetting because I didn’t write it down (probably oat). It was pretty good, not too sweet, and served in a mason jar, which earned it some hipster bonus points.

Overall a nice place to get work done with limited outdoor seating and ample indoor seating.

4th Place: Zocalo Coffee House

• Wifi: 4/5
• Outlets: 4/5
• Music: 5/5
• Ambiance: 4/5
• Comfort: 3/5
• Food: 3/5
• Coffee/Tea: 5/5

This was my first coffee shop in town and one of the only two that I returned to twice (the other being Wild Crumb). It was a little warm in the shop (maybe no AC?), but there was a good amount of seating, lots of outlets, and reliable wifi, with a really killer cappuccino if you like fluffy, slightly wet foam (which I do). My favorite part about the shop was the lofted area, which had a huge sky light.

5th Place: Townshend’s Bozeman Teahouse

• Wifi: 2/5
• Outlets: 3/5
• Music: 1/5
• Ambiance: 2/5
• Comfort: 4/5
• Food: 3/5
• Coffee/Tea: 5/5

Townshend Teahouse did have some perks, like being the only place in Bozeman to sell bubble tea (though I was a bit skeptical about what they thought that entailed), and the tea was good, but my overall experience there was a bit bizarre.

Firstly, I went on a Thursday night, which is apparently the night of a summer concert series in the downtown area (something I’ll share details about in my general Bozeman post), so the cafe was packed and getting a lot of traffic.

The makeup of the house was pretty interesting that night (though I don’t know how it compares to most nights) and in addition to just having kind of strange people at other tables, it was loud.

On top of that, the music was really weird – enough that folks from other tables were also looking around curiously.

The music cycled from extremely loud (and pretty basic) classical music to what sounded like middle eastern electronica.

Overall, kind of a weird experience and I didn’t go back, even though they had a good tea selection.