Murky Coffee

RIP
Between Murky’s tax problem and failure to pay rent it looks like this place is done for good.
I mourn the loss of their overpriced/​snooty, but yummy and pretty coffee.

This place kind of had a San Francisco vibe… but can’t put a finger on what it was that reminded me of the City by the Bay. Good hot chocolate, nice gravity-​slow-​drip coffee (strong) and nice staff. Great place to grab something warm before cruising through the Eastern Market.

Isn’t it interesting that most of the positive ratings for Murky come from people who don’t live in the neighborhood.
I am completely biased and holding a grudge, by the way.

murky is in my neighborhood & their coffee is the teh awesome.
i usually just get a small whatever they have that day.
their french press is good.
haven’t had a latte yet or the hot chocolate, though i’m curious.
we got a ham and cheese croissant (technically prosciutto & gruyère)-it was delicious. when you buy their beans you get free small coffee.
I agree with the reviewer who mentioned Stumptown in Portland. this place, thankfully, is up there.
it is not the best for doing work but there is free wifi and sometimes a spot in the early afternoon during the week.

Awesome coffee and a _​really_​cool place to hang out. The wifi is a little spotty, though (probably too many competing wifi networks nearby), but the coffee and conversation definitely make up for it!
This and Stumptown in Portland, OR are the best coffee shops I’ve been to.

I got 3 hours on a red eye from Oakland and needed to be at my most chipper for a job interview. Thank you for providing me with the maximum amount of caffeine in a cup as possible. I typically judge a coffee shop by the deliciousness of their «coffee with espresso shot» drink (it is an art to get those proportions correct!).
They succeeded. I was positively buoyant at my interview (not to mention brilliantly charming). And to think of all the bad things I said about people who live and work in DC!

Know this: I am not a morning person. I’m not the type who wakes up cheerfully, goes to the gym before work, or has time to make breakfast. Given the options I’ll hit snooze and grab an extra five, thanks.
Murky gets me up early.
I used to live on Capitol Hill. Walking by Murky in the morning was more a pathetic attempt at not going in than a diversion. I live on U street now and I still make Murky a morning stop — participating in one of the most ridiculous roundabout morning commutes known to a DCite. I pass three Starbucks’ during my a.m. commute and blithely walk on past, dreaming of blissful Murky coffee.
Why Murky? They hands-​down serve me the smoothest, most delectable latte I’ve ever had in my life. The espresso is never burnt and milk is foamed so beautifully it makes me kinda teary-​eyed just thinking about it. The small also packs a double-​shot punch and requires me now to inquire whether or not lesser coffee shops do the same. A vanilla latte may set me back nearly $ 5 but I happily hand over my future offspring’s education fund (hell, who am I kidding, it’s really my cupcake fund) at least twice a week.
Baristas and cashiers are also awesome at Murky if only you say hello — and awesomeness extends all the way to the top of the Murky food-​chain. I ran into Nicholas Cho awhile back and he nervously (I think my Murky fan-​dom scared him) but cheerfully offered suggestions as to where I could get my caffeine fix closer to my home. Extra points for simply being dedicated to the good coffee cause.
The music and free-​wifi make me wish I could telecommute, and the cupcakes from BakeshopDC rock my socks. I think this is it: I’m quitting my job to worship at the shrine of Murky.

/​/​Now, everything is everything
What is meant to be, will be
After winter, must come spring
Change, it comes eventually /​/​
The young staff at Murky Coffee made me smile to myself with their chatter about ACT scores and vegan macaroni & cheese and their singing along to an album I love (The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill). In their own world though they may be, I found them to be a friendly bunch.
I took a meeting here recently and then stayed for a couple of hours to work. The wifi’s lightning fast. And the chai. Oh baby, the chai is GOOD — foamy and not too sweet and prepared with dedication.
It was a Wednesday morning and most folks, myself included, were staring into laptop screens. Still with the singing staff and the good-​natured patrons, it felt kind of like home. And even though it’s not close to mine; I have a feeling I’m going to be back at Murky very soon.

Murky is the 3^rd iteration of the local coffee shop on Capitol Hill. It is really a local place with a little bit of coffee snobbery a lots of fun locals. Really nice drips. They make an espresso so nice they don’t like to offer it to-​go. They encourage you to take your coffee in a proper ceramic mug. Wi-​Fi is free, when it works. Freelancers like to park it all day during the work week. In the morning, it can get a little line; on the weekend, forget about it, during high-​coffee-​demand times. Charming, small business, not a chain (two locations) and the baristas have their own charm and personality.

Oh Murky… exactly what coffee should be
This is not push button, machine built coffee– this is hand crafted coffee– made with concentration, thought and care.
If you are more interested in speed than accuracy, or if you don’t care if your brown water has flavor please take yourself and your bad attitude out of line and down the street to Port City or Starbucks.
The rest of us are happy to wait as long as it takes– it really is that good.

I love this place… They have great coffee, great soy chai and GREAT BARISTAS…
People, listen to me: I used to think I was waiting a long time for my delicious treat: the Dirty soy chai (2 shots of expresso +soy chai) UNTIL…
I became a barista… It is a hell more difficult than I thought
:speed, quality, customer skills, patience, knowledge of what the heck is an expresso machine, how not to grind too fine, How to perfectly steam…
And you are also (in no specific order and depending of the day, the moon and the customers)
the cashier who get yield at, the shrink and the confident, the friend, the yellow pages and GPS, the nanny, the crush of the month, the creep magnet, the 1 million answers i should know about coffee, the change maker for the parking or the laundry, the person I would look down at because stupid people hold a job at a coffee shop, the cleaning lady I wish i had at home, The girl i hate, the girl i love… And barista… finally.
I loved the people there, they knew my name and my drink, they did it well and actually brought it to my work sometimes… why???
Because:I smile, I respected their work, I took 5 minutes of my important busy life (hehehe D. C power trip) to wait for great coffee, I understood they were humans, I didn’t steal my turn to be served and I TIPPED WELL.
Always remember that what they earn in an hour is what you guys spend in two drinks and a pastry, gulp and swallow in 20 minutes but they make 20 or more drinks an hour… Do the maths.
I miss them, I miss their coffee and the ambiance… funky, imperfect but warm…
When was the last time somebody referred to an ambiance or some atmosphere at Starbuck?
Yeah generic coffee in a overpriced coffee cafeteria against great fair trade coffee in a fun neighborhood tiny CAFE.
Murky’s wins for me…
Can you fedex the dirty soy chai to San Diego?

Very good coffee, but the counter help has a little too much ‘tude, for my taste. Cool urban feel, somewhat grungy, but again…‘tude.
I don’t like ‘tude in my coffee, no matter how good it is. k’thankxbye.

Haiku
I love their coffee.
Delicious as a soft kiss
In the autumn rain.

Quality coffee in a cool neighborhood. My friend lives east of the Capitol in this area. I really like it here. Free wi-​fi which is fairly stable and consistent. You get a reflection of the neighborhood… almost all ages and income levels come in here. There’s a wacky crew of 19 – 20 year old girls that essentially run the place and act as if they’re 16. They often get people’s orders wrong. But they’ll fix it. The music is off their personal ipods. At least one of them seems to have a cool taste in music. Though the volume is a tad high.
This is just a cool neighborhood coffeeshop with good wifi for parking your butt in a chair and working on your laptop.

The $ 5 hot chocolate is good. They serve the foam on your coffee in pretty patterns without fail.
If the music’s too loud or not to your taste, sitting outside in the summer is nice, provided you can find a seat (although it’s not on the sunny side of the street except early morning). This place is probably the coffee shop with highest laptop per square foot anywhere I’ve ever been. Also, if you’ve a green thumb, they’ll give you coffee grounds for composting. All in all a nice neighborhood coffee shop with very personable servers. You can tell they like working with each other there.
Some reviews have said they’re a bit slow. I agree that they are not as fast as if you were going for drive-​thru Starbucks, but maybe you should take it as an excuse to slow down and relax for a minute.

For some reason all of the independent, good coffee shops are concentrated in Eastern Market. Murky is somewhat of a D.C. institution, I think because it actually brews good coffee. It also has an outpost in Clarendon, which I haven’t yet patronized.
What I love about Murky is you can order drip coffee, which is fresh and reliable, or throw in a couple more bucks and get French press coffee, which, with their variety of beans would make for a good splurge. They also of course sell espresso beverages, though not the cool-​whip in a cup you get at Starbucks. Next time I need more coffee beans for the coffee I brew at work, I’m going to make the trip to Murky instead of being lazy and going to Starbucks.
Murky offers free wi-​fi, and is always populated by a sea of Macs and about all of the hipsters in the D.C. area who aren’t at Busboys & Poets. The space is unfortunately cramped so finding a table is not easy, especially when the patio is closed. Therefore, don’t count on being able to study or work on your Great American Novel here.

In the 19^th century, castration was made illegal in Italy, putting to an end the long castrato tradition, in which young boys were prevented from ever reaching maturity, through a rather unpleasant surgical procedure, in order to preserve the high, preadolescent purity of their voices, which could reach vocal ranges unattainable by any untampered-​with human, male or female.
The reason I mention this is because every time I have been to Murky Coffee, they’ve been playing music that could have been sung by a castrato, except a castrato suffering from phantom limb syndrome who is operating under the belief that someone has reached out and squeezed a certain part of the body that is no longer there. While this may not bother some people, I find it unbelievably difficult to concentrate, as if a small mosquito is lodged in my ear and keeps whining into my eardrum.
Yes, yes, yes the coffee is good. It’s full-​bodied, which I always like, not this love-​in-​a-​canoe-​hazelnut-​french-​vanilla rubbish that’s so common. However, the ear-​piercing music and the general frostiness of the staff combined with the cramped conditions of the store, do not make for coffeehouse fun. So get your coffee (eventually, after a wait) and run.
Also, try the $ 5 hot chocolate. Then tell me what it’s like, because I’ve always been curious about it but never want to shell out the bucks to do so because I’m just so cheap and I know I’ll be mad at spending the money if it’s bad.

I’m not a coffee drinker, but I drink Murky’s.
It’s never burnt. It’s flavorful without being overpowering. Loses a star for the lame makeover. I miss the old décor.
Get a Mocha, it’ll change your life.

and the baristas at Café Grumpy in New York both recommended this place, so I had to try it on my trip to DC. I had a delicious (and beautiful) macchiato, made with espresso that was subtle and understated yet deliciously full. The muffins are works of art — not the most delicious I’ve ever had, but quite possibly the prettiest. And free wi-​fi, too. I’ll be back, if I’m ever in DC again — but the existence of Murky Coffee makes that more likely.
p. s. the route to the bathrooms is straight out of a low-​budget horror film.

Good coffee. Staff may be aloof, but I couldn’t care less. The clientele is the reason I quit coming here. If you’re willing to put up with Supermommy’s extra-​loud cell phone conversation while she runs over your foot with her oversized stroller all the while ignoring her other screaming little precious miracle, then go for it. I’ll pass.
Seriously, this is a composite, not a single experience. Every time I’ve been in this place I’ve received really good coffee, tolerable service, and an overwhelming urge to get the hell out.

The coffees good, the service is often not. Snarling from the staff aint my cup of tea — cmon guys, IM THE ONE WHO HASNT HAD THEIR COFFEE YET!
Maybe Im an old time neighborhood crank, but I dont need the attitude, and apparently they dont need (or want) my business.

Excellent coffee for a good price! Free Wi-​Fi! They decorated the foam for my big cup of café latte nicely that it reminded me of Joe: The Art of Coffee in New York. Definitely a great place to be!