Bulgaria will surprise you. It is gritty and raw as you may expect an Eastern European country to be. But it is definitely “up and coming”, as they say. During our stay we found many cool stores, restaurants and to my surprise, some pretty fancy coffee shops. Here are a few favorites:
Chucky's Coffee House, SOFIA
ul. "Hristo Belchev" 29
Small coffee shop with excellent design, and serious about coffee. The Barista was extremely friendly, even let my husband and friend try on the aprons and play barista. Excellent cold brew with a nice presentation.
Factory Rainbow (Fabrika Daga), SOFIA
ul. Veslets 10
This is a trendy café that serves fresh local coffee. You can tell they are serious about their coffee because the idea of serving decaf was shocking to them.
Mekiza & Coffee (Мекица и Кафе), SOFIA
ul. Graf Ignatiev 26
Mekiza is friend dough, and who doesn’t like fried dough with their coffee! Served very good espresso drinks.
Also try in Sofia: Memento Cafe, Villa Rosiche, Made in Home, Rum.en.Wine Bar (corner of ul. Alabin I.VI and ul. Hristo Belchev - no online listing but worth the search)
Monkey House Café, PLOVDIV
3 Zlatarska Street
This is a hipster looking café, bar, coffee shop in a great part of the old town. Perfect for sitting outside with a flat white.
Also try in Plovdiv: Art News Café, and a cool looking (but unnamed) coffee shop next door to Kotka I Mishka
Ubem, KAZANLAK
I even found a good coffee way off the tourist trail in the city of Kazanlak. No latte art but good enough for a weary traveler. If you are in the city for the rose festival find this cafe on the main road.
Also try in Kazanlak: Peters Cafe and Julias Meinl.
I only had 2 short weeks to explore Bulgaria. If you know of other fancy coffee shops that I should visit next time, let me know.
By Anya Ciecierski, Collaboration Works Marketing
Follow me at @AnyaCWMKTG