Sugar House Coffee is another old haunt of mine. I\u2019ve been coming here for years and have probably visited dozens upon dozens of times. Despite the crowds occasionally deterring me, I still find myself returning. There\u2019s something familiar and comfortable about the place even when it\u2019s packed shoulder-to-shoulder with students, remote workers, artists, and caffeine addicts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Today Matthew and I managed to secure a good spot against the north wall facing the windows where we could casually spy on the endless line of patrons waiting for coffee. The line at Sugar House Coffee never seems to falter. From open to close there always appears to be movement, conversation, and activity. Clearly they\u2019re doing something right because this place has survived a very long time in a city where coffee shops often come and go.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The building itself has a distinctive character. It\u2019s an older rectangular cinder block structure sitting right in the middle of the Sugar House district. The entire south side is lined with windows which flood the cafe with ambient natural light throughout the day. On sunny mornings the place practically glows inside. Art from local artists adorns the walls and most pieces are available for sale, giving the shop an ever-changing personality depending on what\u2019s currently being displayed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sugar House Coffee serves more than just coffee these days. They also offer beer and wine alongside a small menu of simple food dishes. Nothing overly fancy, but enough to sustain you during a long laptop session or conversation with friends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The crowd tends to skew younger such as college students, creatives, remote workers, and laptop campers dominate the scene, though you\u2019ll occasionally spot older guys like myself trying to look relevant while nursing a latte and pretending our backs don\u2019t hurt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As a workspace, the cafe functions surprisingly well if you can actually find seating if it\u2019s not packed already. There are plenty of tables, metal chairs, cushioned chairs, and outlets scattered throughout the building for plugging in laptops. The challenge is availability. This place is almost always packed. IMHO the best seats are the three tall tables by the windows, and those fill up quickly. There\u2019s also a bar facing the windows which some people seem to enjoy, though personally I dislike sitting with my back toward the rest of the cafe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The sealed cement floors and open layout probably make the cafe fairly echoey, though since Im deaf, I\u2019m probably the wrong person to judge acoustics. Everyone else seems comfortable enough talking over one another.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For coffee, I ordered my usual, a 12-ounce latte served in a ceramic mug. These days I maintain that the quality of a latte depends more on the individual barista than the coffee shop itself, but Sugar House Coffee generally leans toward a more milky flavor. Their lattes tend to be smooth and milk-forward with the espresso arriving mostly in the aftertaste. The chocolaty mocha flavor of the espresso still comes through clearly, though softened by the milk. I know my palate lacks the sophistication to describe coffee with words like \u201cnotes of blackberry and oak harvested under a waxing moon,\u201d but the drink was good, comforting, and easy to enjoy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The shop also provides free wifi with sufficient speed for getting actual work done. Remote workers will appreciate that. Assuming, of course, they can find a seat before someone else claims it first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Overall, Sugar House Coffee remains one of the enduring staples of Salt Lake coffee culture. Crowded? Absolutely. Difficult to park sometimes? Definitely. But it also possesses the kind of lived-in authenticity that many newer cafes try very hard to manufacture. It feels real, a little worn around the edges, and comfortably alive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I give this place 8\/10 rating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sugarhouse Coffee shop is somewhat hidden unless you actually bother to look around, since it\u2019s not right up against the sidewalk like most coffee shops. That said, the building is painted in rainbow colors, so somehow it manages to be both easy to miss and impossible to miss at the same time. It definitely gave LGBTQ+ friendly vibes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Plenty of parking in the back, which automatically earns points because circling for parking before coffee is not the vibe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2b50\ufe0f\u2b50\ufe0f\u2b50\ufe0f\u2b50\ufe0f<\/p>\n\n\n\n What I did *not* expect was how wildly popular this place is. Opened the door and\u2014boom\u2014immediate long line. Also, approximately one million tables and chairs, with a mix of hard chairs and cushioned ones. Odds of snagging a cushioned chair? A solid 50\/50 unless you show up early or later when the caffeine chaos dies down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Need power? That\u2019s more of a gamble depending on where you land. But if your laptop is clinging to life, your best bet is the long communal table. Near-limitless outlets right in the center. A gift from the productivity gods.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2b50\ufe0f\u2b50\ufe0f\u2b50\ufe0f\u2b50\ufe0f<\/p>\n\n\n\n Moves at a surprisingly decent pace, and the menu signage is big enough to read from a distance, which means you have plenty of time to stare at it pretending you know what you want.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2b50\ufe0f\u2b50\ufe0f\u2b50\ufe0f\u2b50\ufe0f\u2b50\ufe0f<\/p>\n\n\n\n I ordered the Mayan Mocha<\/strong> (Vanilla, Chocolate, Cayenne, Cinnamon) because I figured, why not try something new? It comes in a paper cup with a plastic lid, but if you\u2019re a tree hugger, feeling fancy, or just have strong mug-related opinions, you can ask for a proper mug instead. Whatever floats your boat. No judgment here\u2014the whole space felt pretty welcoming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2b50\ufe0f\u2b50\ufe0f\u2b50\ufe0f\u2b50\ufe0f<\/p>\n\n\n\n Nice kick, exactly what I expected based on the ingredients. Spicy, but short-lived in a good way\u2014just enough to make you sip slower without setting your soul on fire. Unless you\u2019re a masochist and think adding heat on top of hot coffee is character building.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \ud83d\udd25\ud83d\udd25\ud83d\udd25<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fast\u2026but not *fast* fast. Depends on the day and how crowded it is. Good enough for basic work. Video conferencing? Unknown, because I haven\u2019t tested my luck there yet. My highly scientific benchmark was \u201chow fast does a website load?\u201d and the answer was roughly 20 seconds. Not amazing. Not terrible. Functional. Which, honestly, is sometimes all you need.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2b50\ufe0f\u2b50\ufe0f\u2b50\ufe0f<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s been almost a year since my last blog post, and much has transpired since then. Both of my girls are now living in another state pursuing their careers, and as a result my motivation for writing coffee shop reviews has stagnated a bit. Originally, the whole point of this blog was simply spending quality […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":533,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-527","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/slclatte.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/527","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/slclatte.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/slclatte.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/slclatte.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/slclatte.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=527"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/slclatte.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/527\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":537,"href":"https:\/\/slclatte.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/527\/revisions\/537"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/slclatte.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/533"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/slclatte.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=527"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/slclatte.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=527"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/slclatte.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=527"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Picture](\"https:\/\/slclatte.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/kip-at-sugarhouse.jpeg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nMatthew’s Review<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Outside:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"Man](\"https:\/\/slclatte.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/matthew-at-sugarhouse.jpeg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nInside:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
The line:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"picture](\"https:\/\/slclatte.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/sugarhouse-counter.jpeg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nCoffee:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Taste:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Internet<\/strong>:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"Sign](\"https:\/\/slclatte.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/sugarhouse-sign.jpeg\")
<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"