The coffee list

Short, because the town is honest about it: Baytown has a few good cups and a lot of drive-through.

Heart and Whisk, 4618 North Main. The best coffee in town by a distance, and the pastry case is why the line exists. Espresso done properly, a pour-over if you ask nicely on a slow morning, oat milk without a sigh. Weekdays before nine or weekends before eight; after that, the line and the sell-out.

Squeeze The Day closed this year, which takes the town's one juice bar with it. Noted here so nobody drives there.

The Cuban Cafe. Café con leche is not third-wave and doesn't want to be. It's the coffee of Baytown, it's ready at four in the morning, and it costs what coffee used to cost.

Book and Beans. The Lee College café — if it's open to the public this semester, it's the campus cup and the quiet table. Check the page; the status changes with the semester.

The chains. Starbucks and Dutch Bros are on Garth and you know the drill. Dutch Bros has the line at seven; Starbucks has the seat. Neither is on this list for taste, both are on it for honesty.

What's missing. A proper coffee bar downtown that's open past two. Texas Avenue has bars and a daiquiri; it doesn't have a place to sit with a laptop at four in the afternoon. If you open one, we'll put you at the top of this page.

En español. Café en Baytown: Heart and Whisk en North Main es el mejor; el café con leche del Cuban Cafe es el café del pueblo desde las cuatro de la mañana. En el centro falta un café abierto por la tarde.