Kevin P.
Yelp
Having spent much of the morning walking around Annapolis, seeing the sites, my wife and I were in need of caffeine. Searching Yelp for a good place to sit and energize ourselves, we came across 49 West. It was around 2:30 in the afternoon when we entered, and there were maybe three other people there sipping coffee and reading. A guy was preparing his guitar and music for an evening of serenading, but otherwise the place was so quiet you could hear a pin drop. We sat down at a table near the front and were immediately helped by the very attentive server.
I had a normal cappuccino and a slice of pecan pie, and my wife had a tea and apple pie. The drinks were normal, fine, run-of-the-mill tea and coffee. The pies were good, but again, nothing out of this world. They had a large selection of cakes, pies, and cookies, and in the end I wished that I had ordered a slice of chocolate instead of pecan. The atmosphere was what one expects from a local cafe/bar -- small tables, local art for sale displayed on the walls, a student in the back corner with a pile of textbooks, a random old woman sipping coffee and reading. The table was not very clean, and the chair felt so wobbly that I thought that any moment it would fall out from under me; I switched it for another chair from another table and the same happened.
Would I go back? If I were in the area and just wanted a coffee and to sit in a quiet place, sure. It's the standard artsy coffee house you find in a thousand towns all over the country -- nothing special, but reliable.
