Espresso Royale can best be described as my Saint Paul safe place. Located across the street from St. Kate’s in Highland Park, it was walking distance from my old apartment and continues to be the place I go on days when I just need a quiet place to meet prospective clients or to quarantine myself from distractions.

This coffee shop is one of the best kept secrets of Saint Paul and I feel like publicizing it’s existence is my good deed of the year, mostly, because it means sacrificing what makes this coffee shop my favorite; the space. While it’s never empty, it’s also extremely rare that you won’t find an open table where you can drink your coffee and dig into whatever project you’re working on, be it a spreadsheet, homework assignment, or a blog post…

Atmosphere:

Espresso Royale is locally owned and based off the culture of a college espresso bar. There are actually three different locations in Minnesota; St. Paul, Minneapolis, and Dinkytown, as well as locations in a variety of other college towns such as Madison.

With free wifi, scattered outlets, and a variety of tables and booth options, Espresso Royale stays true to it’s mission of being a “neighborhood coffee shop.” Rarely is the noise too much that you need your headphones nor do you have to worry about other customers encroaching on your personal space. You can go there at any time of the day and still see someone reading a book or typing away on their laptop.

Service:

The staff is always friendly and seem to know many of their customers by name, and in turn, the customers here seem to relish in their conversations with the baristas.

Drinks:

The coffee here is organic and brewed to perfection. They offer a variety of brewed, blended, and iced options. My personal favorite is the iced mocha…please don’t mind the gigantic size…it was a rough day 🙂

Espresso Royale is also very competitively priced with the larger chains, something to make note of since they are located directly across the street from a Caribou Coffee.

Food:

I’ve never tried one of their sandwiches, but the names are pretty great.  This quirky sense of humor is another reason the local coffee shop approach is the way to go.

They also have a history of using their marquee board pretty hilariously. You’ll have to drive by and check it out!

Espresso Royale
475 Fairview Street
St. Paul, MN 55105
Monday – Friday: 6:30AM – 10PM
Saturday – Sunday: 7AM – 10PM