Kumquat Coffee HLP
Coffee shop · Highland Park ·
Specialty lattes, global beans, Fondry pastries, and unique drinks
Specialty lattes, global beans, Fondry pastries, and unique drinks
"A York Boulevard pour-over-focused café that highlights single-origin brews and precise, filter-based extraction." - Julie Wolfson
"Kumquat in Highland Park is a quiet coffee shop (i.e., you could walk in half asleep and stay that way until your first cup). Baristas silently brew one of the ten pour-overs on the menu while customers thoughtfully peruse shelves of Japanese coffee filters and imported chocolates. The espresso drinks at Kumquat are flashier than the ambiance, though, like the Tennessee Iced Latte with a savory twist from smoked salt and the Cloudy Latte with thick peanut butter foam. If you’re a tea person who decided to read this guide anyway, Kumquat has your back with fun lattes like milk tea with coconut cream and masala chai." - sylvio martins, garrett snyder
"Highland Park has no shortage of picture-perfect cafés, and Kumquat is a relative newcomer, landing on York Blvd in November 2018. Co-owners AJ Kim and Scott Sohn both have backgrounds in coffee and wanted to simplify the business when they opened so they could focus on the essentials - like the origin of each ingredient, sourcing syrups directly from farms around the US, and offering coffee from a dozen different roasters around the world. They chose the name Kumquat because it felt unexpected for a coffee shop, but it also relates to their Asian American identity as something that hails from Asia, and their experiences of coffee culture in places like Korea and Japan. Throughout the pandemic, they’ve continued thinking about and focusing on what their customers are looking for: quality home brewing (they increased the variety of coffee beans and gear), refreshing drinks during warm months (they’re currently doing a cold brew fest with nine different types) and shorter wait times (there are plans for a second location in Cypress Park). Order this: A cold brew from their seasonal selection, or a hojicha latte." - with warm welcome, leslie yeh
"The neatly wrapped Hot Pocket of a breakfast burrito served at Kumquat Coffee contains all the important elements: Chunks of seasoned potato? Check. Soft scrambled eggs? That’s right. Gooey cheese that gets into every bite? Indeed. But it’s the addition of caramelized garlic confit that sets the burrito at this Highland Park coffee shop apart. The garlic flavor isn’t too pungent for the morning, but it does heighten the elements around it—we especially like it with their juicy turkey sausage (you can also order it with bacon for crunch). These burritos typically take about 15 minutes to prepare, so place a pickup order beforehand on their website." - nikko duren, garrett snyder
"I start the morning at Highland Park coffee experts Kumquat Coffee, open since 2018 and brewing one of the best cups of coffee in town — whether I’m after a cold brew, a single-origin mocha, or an espresso tonic. The team behind Kumquat also opened a croissant bakery called Fondry in April 2024, and Fondry’s baked goods can be found at Kumquat on Sundays, Mondays, and Tuesdays." - Rebecca Roland