By the Numbers: How do Evanston’s coffee shops stack up?

The Daily compared nine of Evanston’s coffee shops.

Thomas Hurley, Games Editor

April 15, 2026

Many Northwestern students flock to coffee shops to study or relax — but how exactly do the city’s best-known spots stack up? The Daily evaluated nine local coffee shops on attributes including distance from campus, prices and drink variety.

Most Evanston coffee shops are concentrated within a mile of NU’s campus.

Of the nine The Daily analyzed, five are in downtown Evanston, two are on the Main-Dempster Mile and two are in the Central Street business district.

Measuring distance from The Rock — a campus landmark and hub of student activity — Colectivo Coffee and Pâtisserie Coralie are tied for the closest walking distance from campus: 11 minutes, according to Google Maps.

The rest of the downtown coffee shops, as well as Evanston Pour at the intersection of Chicago Avenue and Dempster Street, are within a 20-minute radius.

Reprise Coffee Roasters, which is located near the intersection of Chicago Avenue and Main Street, is a 31-minute walk from The Rock and a block away from the Main Street CTA and Metra stations. Backlot Coffee and Outdoor Cafe, which are in northern Evanston, are 40 minutes from campus and three blocks away from the Central Street Metra station.

Evanston’s coffee shops all have different opening and closing times, and only Colectivo Coffee and Cupitol Coffee & Eatery have the same hours every day of the week.

The shops with the most open hours per week are Evanston Pour, Outdoor Cafe and Colectivo Coffee, with 93.5, 88 and 84 hours, respectively.

All of the nine shops offer more than just coffee. The average number of distinct beverage orders on the menu is just less than 50.

Outdoor Cafe ranks as the coffee shop with the most beverage options at 106, including 26 smoothie or boba options. It also has the largest number of hot teas, iced coffees and iced teas, with 19, 18 and 13, respectively.

Reprise Coffee Roasters has the most hot coffee options at 23, while Cupitol Coffee & Eatery has the most other beverages at 18.

For this graph, each beverage on the menu is counted as a selection. For individual drinks that can be ordered hot or iced, according to the website, one hot drink and one iced drink are counted.

Individual flavors of beverages count as separate selections, but modifications such as syrup or extra shots of espresso do not.

“Other” drinks mostly include juices, hot chocolate and steamed milk.

Each location’s menu shows that most offer cappuccinos, mochas and espressos, so The Daily opted to compare these three drinks.

Outdoor Cafe’s smallest mocha option is 16 ounces, so its $5.70 price is for that option. Besides that, every mocha selected is 12 ounces. The cappuccinos are also all 12 ounces, and the espressos are all double shots.

The most expensive item overall of these three at all ten shops is the $7.30 mocha from Evanston Pour. The most expensive cappuccino and double shot of espresso are also Evanston Pour’s, at $5.55 and $5.05, respectively.

Across the shops that serve them, the average price of a 12-ounce cappuccino is $4.83, the average price of a 12-ounce mocha is $5.78 and the average price of a double shot of espresso is $3.70.

Evanston Pour has the highest average price of the shops that serve all three items at $5.97, while Cupitol Coffee & Eatery has the lowest at $4.33.

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