Ithaca's Best Coffee Shops, Ranked by Locals (2026)

Ithaca coffee is largely the story of Gimme!. The roaster opened on North Cayuga Street in 2000 as a small Ithaca espresso bar, and grew into the small batch roastery that Roast Magazine named Roaster of the Year in 2013. The Cayuga shop in Fall Creek is the original. The West State Street outpost runs a neighborhood espresso bar serving the Leftist Espresso blend along with organic teas and pastries. Both rooms run the same Gimme! program but anchor different sides of the town.

Below are two Ithaca Gimme! cafes drawn from the editorial coverage. The list is narrow because Gimme! is the editorial story in Ithaca. Other rooms work the town, and the Pulled directory plots them all.

The North Cayuga shop is the original Gimme!, the room where the roastery started before it moved next door. The West State Street outpost runs a Wednesday tasting at 5:30pm that is the easiest way to taste through the current lineup with someone who can talk about it. Both rooms run a serious bar and both pull regulars who have been coming in since the early 2000s.

Ithaca coffee is more than Gimme!. The Pulled directory tracks every specialty cafe across the town with check-in radius for the iOS app.

Gimme! Coffee

430 North Cayuga Street

Gimme on N Cayuga is the Fall Creek shop where Gimme started in 2000 as a small Ithaca espresso bar before the small batch roastery opened the next year. Roast Magazine named the program Roaster of the Year in 2013. The menu runs the standard specialty lineup, plus a Sumatra and a Deep Disco blend the regulars order on rotation. Matcha latte with oat milk gets ordered as often as the espresso. Order the macchiato if you came for the version of Gimme the original baristas built. Order the pour over if you want to taste the roast that put a small Ithaca shop on the national map.

Visit Gimme! Coffee on Pulled →

Gimme! Coffee

506 W State St

Gimme on W State Street is the West End Ithaca outpost, a neighborhood espresso bar serving the Leftist Espresso blend along with organic teas and pastries. Wednesday at 5:30pm is a free public coffee tasting, which is the easiest way to taste through the current lineup with someone who can talk about it. Hours run 7:30am to 5pm daily. Order the Leftist Espresso cortado if you want the house blend in a small milk format. Order a seat at the Wednesday tasting if you came to learn what Gimme is roasting right now and why.

Visit Gimme! Coffee on Pulled →

An Ithaca morning that starts at Gimme! on North Cayuga in Fall Creek and ends at Gimme! on West State Street in the West End is one roaster across two registers in the same town. The Pulled directory plots every specialty cafe across Ithaca with check-in radius for the iOS app.

Pulled Coffee maps every cafe in Ithaca. Check in with the iOS app to start earning real cash. Visit /earn for the rules.