Milch

Milch sits in Hamburg's Portuguese Quarter near St. Michael's and the harbour, in a space that was a small milk-and-deli shop in the 1950s — its blue factory tiles, cockle stove and striking lettering all preserved. Owner Nico Ueckermann built the café around making coffee the centre of attention: the Kees van der Westen Spirit machine faces the room so guests can watch their drink being made, and there's always a light and a dark option on the bar. Milch roasts on a small in-house machine for maximum freshness and rounds out the menu with guest beans from respected roasters like Berlin's Five Elephant and Nuremberg's Machhörndl. Filter is served as low-cost small-batch brew so newcomers can try it without commitment, and the espresso drinks — from the flat white to a spoonably thick Italian hot chocolate — are excellent. Food is deliberately a side note, dogs are very welcome and laptops emphatically are not: this is a room for drinking coffee and talking about it.