On my drive from Chicago up to Green Lake, I stopped for some coffee in Kenosha, Wisconsin and found a lovely spot with great coffee
Best Coffee In Kenosha, Wisconsin
I arrived in Chicago around midday, grabbed my rental car, and hopped on I-94 W with a hankering for coffee. A 2.5-hour drive lay ahead of me, but my first order of business was to find a café for my afternoon coffee.
As I often do when unfamiliar with a place, I ask Google. The goal was to find a place directly off the interstate to minimize my diversion. Unfortunately, the only results that were showing up were places like Starbucks and Panera Bread.
I noticed that Kenosa, the first large city over the Wisconsin border and home to worldwide headlines after the Kyle Rittenhouse shooting in 2020, had a few places and decided to stop there. The 2020 shootings were such a cultural flashpoint and Rittenhouse continues to spark debate, even today.
But the point of my frolic to Kenosha was good coffee, not Rittenhouse. And good coffee I found, though it required a seven-mile diversion from I-94.
East View Coffee Company
716 58th Street
Kenosha, WI 53140
(262) 764-0082
7:00 am – 4:00 pm (daily)
Located near Lake Michigan in an older part of town, East View Coffee Company offers a large tasting room and wide selection of coffee and tea, plus pastries.
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I ordered a cortado and feeling a little peckish, also ordered a cinnamon scone (which would have been far better warmed up and served with clotted cream).
The coffee was excellent and I also loved the “free sample” of the coffee of the day, which had a smoky flavor and great aftertaste. Coffee is roasted on-site.
Further back in the restaurant was a kid’s playroom and a clean bathroom…two more plusses, especially if I was traveling with my family.
CONCLUSION
Last year I found some great coffee in Fond Du Lac, Wisconsin and this year it was in Kenosha. East View Coffee Company is highly recommended…but now it is on to my next Wisconsin coffee shop!
In the last ten years or so, a lot of small independent coffee shops have popped up all over the state.
The joke used to be that you weren’t really a town in Wisconsin if there wasn’t at least one bar/tavern, a church and a post office in the place.
While:
(a) the post offices are far fewer nowadays; and
(b) the bars and taverns seem to be no more than before; and
(c) churches are more and bigger than ever (although their parking lots seem pretty empty overall and emptier than they used to be on Sunday mornings 10+ years ago),
small independent coffee shops are more spread out across the state than ever before.
Good to know about this place! If you’re ever in that same area and have a hankering for a great Midwest pizza, Kaiser’s is nearby (within walking distance) and worth a try.
It’s also worth mentioning that this location (near downtown Kenosha) is a solid 15 minutes to the east of I-94, which actually runs N-S along the western outskirts of the city. So, it’s not “on the way” really, though still worth the stop. WisDOT has long annoyed me by putting businesses on their guide signs which lead one to believe that they’re just off the freeway but in reality they’re 5 or 6 miles away.
Wisconsin DOT used to be better about the blue road signs not advertising food/gas type stuff miles off the highway exits. But it seemed to be around when Wisconsin lost its hold on US House Appropriations (with the Chairman/Ranking member position) the shift to advertise places miles from the highway exits went sort of wild and into overdrive across the state both around the cities and also in the more rural parts.
@AngryFlier: I knew what I was getting myself into – but you’re quite right that this was not off the road, but a substantial frolic that ultimately cost me about an hour.
I used to think these “Great Coffee in X” articles were lame, but I am increasingly enjoying them as my fondness for coffee simultaneously grows. I only drink it black though.
@ChiHsuan … “Simultaneous” with your increasing love of large cinnamon buns .
Any place that roasts in house is my kind of coffee shop. A fresh blonde roast pour over is the best.
What? You didn’t stop at the Mars Cheese Castle?
LOL. My friend Denny also asked about that!
It isn’t possible to go North on I-94, you went West. I-94, like all even numbered interstate highways travels E/W. Though for the stretch between Chicago and Milwaukee that’s not very intuitive since you are moving north, but it shouldn’t be posted that way.
You are quite right!
Thanks for the article. Sounds like a great place. BTW Kyle seems like a great young man.