Redfin

Whether you prefer pour-over, French press or cold brew, if you’re a resident of Pittsburgh, drink up because you’re in the right city.

To celebrate National Coffee Day—which is observed September 29—Redfin has just released its report, “The 10 Most Caffeinated U.S. Cities,” which looks at cities with the most coffee shops per capita.

Redfin
Redfin’s map showing which parts of the U.S. have more local coffee shops and more large chains per capita.
Redfin’s map showing which parts of the U.S. have more local coffee shops and more large chains per capita.

A national real estate company providing web-based data and brokerage services that is based in Seattle—the city that ranks number two on the coffee list—Redfin is the latest source to showcase Pittsburgh’s food and drink scene.

What’s behind the ranking?

The only eastern U.S. city to make the Top 10 (sorry, NYC), Pittsburgh earned the #5 spot for having six coffee shops per 10,000 people—that means 2.586 coffee shops per square mile.

The report used location data from the Redfin company, Walk Score, and also compared the number of independent coffeehouses to chain coffee shops. Of Pittsburgh’s 250 coffee shops, 171 quality as indie shops.

For his article, The 10 Most Caffeinated U.S. Cities, Joshua Crespo explains:

Refin
Courtesy Refin.

“To identify these coffee capitals, we looked at the 100 largest cities that Walk Score and Redfin serve and found the top 10 with the most coffee shops per capita. We then stirred through the data to see how many of these coffee shops in each city are indie cafes versus large chains. (We defined large coffee chains as those with 30 or more retail locations.) We then tracked down the ZIP code with the most coffee shops per capita in each city and calculated their median home price.”

The Pittsburgh zip code with the most coffee shops per capita? Drum roll please . . . 15222, which includes the Strip District and Downtown.

Redfin also calculated the very non-vital data of “how many lattes it would take to buy a home in that ZIP (using $4 as the average latte price).” Looking at a median home price of $365,000 in the 15222 zip code, that comes to 91,250 lattes.

Topping the list is San Francisco, followed by Seattle and Portland. No surprise there.

Read Redfin’s entire list of “The 10 Most Caffeinated U.S. Cities” and view the map.

Jennifer has worked at the Mattress Factory, Brooklyn Museum of Art and SLB Radio Productions. She is co-author of the award-winning book, "Pittsburgh Signs Project: 250 Signs of Western Pennsylvania." For 15-plus years, she was co-coordinator and marketing director with Handmade Arcade, Pittsburgh's first and largest independent craft fair. She makes music as The Garment District and is a founding member of Brooklyn's The Ladybug Transistor.