Crowfoot Valley Coffee

Crowfoot Valley Coffee opened in 1999, which makes it the elder statesman of Castle Rock coffee by a wide margin. It is a genuine boutique roaster rather than a shop pouring someone else's beans: owner Jason Gray trained at Starbucks' roasting facility in Seattle, spent a decade in Alaska, and named the place after the Crowfoot valley that runs between Castle Rock and Parker. Gray is also the current Mayor of Castle Rock, which tells you how deep the roots go here.

The coffee program is the real thing. They roast in-house, source beans from around a dozen countries, and rotate through roughly twenty blends. On the drink menu the spicy latte and the lavender latte are the two specialties to order if you want something past a standard cortado. There is free WiFi, and in the morning the room runs as a calm work-and-meet spot, which is the side of this place most people picture.

The thing that sets Crowfoot apart from every other cafe in town is the Crow Bar, which opened in 2010 and turns the same room into an evening venue serving upper-end craft beer and hand-crafted martinis. It hosts trivia, live music, and comedy on a rotating schedule, so the atmosphere depends entirely on when you walk in. Mornings are quiet and focused. Evenings get loud and social, and they are not the time to show up with a laptop expecting to grind through email.

There is a second Crowfoot location at Arapahoe Community College's Sturm Collaboration Campus in Castle Rock, but the Crow Bar and its beer program belong to the downtown Wilcox Street flagship only. The practical bonus downtown is parking: there is a full lot behind the building, a real advantage when the street spots fill up. Quiet mornings, loud nights, and Castle Rock's longest-running cup of coffee.