I’ve been meaning to blog about Aviano Coffee for some time now, and on yesterday’s visit, the chalkboard “menu” outside was simply begging me to whip out the ol’ camera phone and capture a poorly lit JPG for you all.

As you may have noticed in my bio, I come from the Pacific Northwest. This makes finding a decent cup of coffee anywhere else a chore, to put it lightly. So one of the first things I did upon arriving in Denver was go on a tour… seeking out any and every fine coffee establishment until I found something worth consuming. Naturally, Starbucks and other chains are right out. Peet’s makes an okay cuppajoe, but we’re looking for the best stuff here. After three experiences that almost made me just give up on coffee in Denver, I landed at Aviano.

The first thing to notice, is that these guys pay attention to details. You can see it in the decor. The use Intelligensia beans out of Chicago, which excepting a couple world-renowned roasters in Portland/Seattle, is among the best beans you can find. This was a promising start. The second promising occurence was when I ordered a traditional cappuccino and wasn’t asked “what size?”. If you have to ask, just skip it and pour me some drip coffee, please.

The coffee is pretty good, ultimately… but, as usual, it depends on the barista. There are a couple baristas, including Doug, the owner, that hit the mark every time, with perfect shots and perfect milk. The rest are hit and miss… though I will say the guy in there yesterday (I didn’t catch his name) asked how my capp was, and upon my observation that it was a little bitter on the top (hardly a cardinal sin), he promptly made me a new one and insisted that he would keep trying until he got it right. The second one was excellent.

And, of course, there’s WiFi. It’s recently been encrypted for ‘customers only’, but they haven’t changed the password, so once you got it you got it.

Aviano is on 9th and Lincoln, in the Beauvallon building. Take a moment to enjoy a traditional double cappuccino, and don’t feel bad if you feel the need to muse out loud, “Starbucks, WTF?”.