Fluid Coffee Bar in Denver, CO - Cafe Reviews | Coffee Shops - Coffee Forum

Fluid Coffee Bar is in Uptown Denver, Colorado and one of two shops in Denver that have a clover machine (both shops being a Novo coffee supplied shop). The cafe is on the corner of Pennsylvania and 19th, less then a 5 minute walk from busy downtown. They have a standard menu consisting of your essential espresso drinks from lattes to blended, and of course your brewed coffees. This is actually the only Novo-based-coffee coffee shop I've ever been to, so I don't know if it's all Novo stores or just this one, but their selection is coffee is impressive. Though not a vast, wall to wall selection of different origins, their selection is high quality and a very nice treat from just my standard Starbucks basics. Every barista I've had on my several visits have been very knowledgeable on their own coffee and also impressive latte skills. Some of the baristas have even entered in national competitions (so they told me, and I'm inclined to believe) in latte art and preparation. 

Sitting in the cafe, you can tell they have their regular addicts, but also new people venturing out of their Daz Bog and Starbucks comfort zones to try something new and life changing (as the clover was for me). The food here is pretty decent whether it's a homemade muffin or a pre-prepped sandwich they made before opening. This coffee shop doesn't go for the serious business meeting vibe that you get at most Starbucks (this is uptown after all.) You loosen up a little as you walk into the doors and look around. With their local art work, the occasional odd table, worn leather couches, and community bulletin board covered head to toe next to the counter you feel apart of Denver. It's become my favorite place to go while visiting family. Fluid's location is also perfect for Denver weather. If you didn't know, Denver is the 2nd most sunny city in the US and just north of Fluid Coffee Bar is a lovely park with grass that doesn't make you itchy when you lay down on it (at least it didn't make me itchy.)

One last thing I would also like to throw in is the baristas don't trash talk Starbucks. Being a local coffee shop kind of guy I hear this a lot from locally owned shops. Yes, they may throw the occasional quip about the mega-corporate coffee store, but all in all they give Starbucks a break from the angry, local-owned, pitchfork-wielding, coffee shop barista mob, and to me that's respectable. This coffee snob gives Fluid Coffee Bar a 5 out of 5 (which is pretty hard to do for me), and impressed me so much I decided to write a review. 

http://www.fluidcoffeebar.com/