French Truck Coffee

Looking for New Orleans’ best coffee? French Truck is among the elite. Beginning as a back-room micro-roaster back in 2012, it is an adorable little enterprise that originally was a wholesale outfit making coffee just for local restaurants and markets. In 2014, owner Geoffrey Meeker opened a retail shop and coffee bar on Magazine Street in the Lower Garden District, then expanded to a second location at 4536 Dryades St.

The Magazine Street shop is a small facility with a couple of counter stools inside and a few sidewalk tables. The food menu is minimal – sweet and savory croissants, brioche, biscotti. The coffee menu is sophisticated, including single origin pour-over, cold brew, French press, artistic lattes, and espressos. I am dazzled by a concoction called New Orleans iced coffee, which is a sweet, chickory-charged au lait packed with frosty chipped ice. Connoisseurs like the French Truck café because it frequently offers coffee made from rare and exotic beans that are available nowhere else.

Note: The Dryades Street location has a larger menu that includes waffles for breakfast as well as salads and sandwiches at lunch.