North County San Diego is a growth area for specialty coffee, and Lofty Coffee has been one of the breakout hits. Eric Myers built on the success of an original Encinitas café by opening a branch of Lofty Coffee in downtown Solana Beach in 2014.

I like the Solana Breach outpost even better. Lofty crafted this open-air coffeehouse with cinder block and wood, a curved wooden counter with decorative white tile, and requisite high-end coffee-making equipment. Cascading nitro cold brew flows like water, and they serve sig drinks like the Turkish Latte. Lofty doesn’t simmer coffee in a copper cezve, like you’d find in Istanbul. Instead, a double shot of Sweet Blue espresso blend joins steamed milk, cardamom and simple syrup. The cardamom flavor didn’t come through quite as strongly as I would have liked, but Lofty more than made up for it with artistry, in this case a graceful swan.