De Fer Coffee & Tea — Restaurant in Pittsburgh

This place is SO COOL. I'm a little bit of a coffee baby; I love coffee, but I usually hit it with cream and sugar and flavors - basically, I love coffee as a "medium" for other stuff. But this place is slightly changing my mind with their weird experimental stuff and their killer desserts. I don't like black coffee, and I can't physically bring myself to drink espresso. But I got an espresso here served in (basically) a tall shooter glass with ice cream in the bottom and honey mixed in, and after like one minute the ice cream had melted into a buttery smooth creamy foam and dispersed all through the coffee. It wasn't sweet. No sir, not sweet at all, not like I like it. But I LOVED that drink. I feel like I can taste it every time I think about it, it's crazy. I also got tiramisu, which, pretty standard in Pittsburgh. But whereas most of the tiramisu you'll find in the city is a small single-serve dessert, I was given a huge slab of it here. As in, they had to have MADE it in a real pan, for real, as tiramisu is supposed to be made. And it has spoiled me on tiramisu, I can't get it anywhere else anymore.

Also, like most indie coffee shops, they sell proprietary coffee there, as well as some coffee making supplies. But, they also have loose leaf teas, local honeys and sauces and stuff, and there's even a little free book section full of kids books. Plus the decor is awesome, obviously, just look at the pictures.

Definitely drop...

De Fer... More like De Awesome!

De Fer Coffee in the Strip District is a step above mostly all other coffee shops I have ever been to based on the level of service, quality of the coffee, existence of wine & beer offerings, and the ambiance of the café.

The owners and managers hit home runs when hiring their staff. Every employee was knowledgeable, friendly, enthusiastic, and genuine. I regret not remembering employee names because they all deserve so much recognition for doing a great job. I was at De Fer on Sunday, October 8th doing some work for about an hour around 4:00pm. The Steelers had just beat the Ravens!

The drip coffee was some of the best I've ever had. I purchased some whole beans that I can't wait to get into at home. I did not partake in the wine & beer offerings. However, it is pretty rare to find a coffee roaster that also has a liquor license for wine and beer sales. I really want to visit Pittsburgh again just to check out more of De Fer's offerings.

The café is busy! However, the staff do an unbelievable job ensuring a good experience by bringing drinks and food to the tables instead of the customary crowd of caffeine deprived customers standing around the drink bar eagerly awaiting for their name to be mispronounced. It's just a cool space in a redeveloped industrial building with a lot of great neighborhoody things popping up around.

Way...

Stopped here with my wife to get some iced coffee and I will say the atmosphere is really fun inside and they have a lot of options in terms of drinks beyond just coffee. The have a pretty wide selection of alcoholic drinks if you are into that sort of stuff as well as some food options. The prices for coffees are right around the same level as Starbucks and the food is about the same quality too, all pre-made stuff. Alcoholic drink prices seem high but I haven't bought an alcoholic drink in 10 years so maybe thats the going price for this area.

In terms of the coffee I got one of their signature iced coffees, it was supposed to be honey and one other thing, can't remember the other thing but the coffee really didn't have any flavor beyond plain old coffee, it was also not sweet even with honey it was supposed to come with.

Overall it was pretty basic iced coffee that didn't really stand out to me as anything special, they did put a lot of effort into the hot coffees I saw other people getting so maybe thats where this place shines, if you looking for a place for iced coffee this is run of the mills and...