How we rank coffee shops
We'd rather show our work than ask you to trust a black box. Here's exactly how a shop gets onto the guide, how the numbers on each card are calculated, and how we keep it all from going stale.
1. Inclusion is editorial
A shop earns a place on the guide by being worth visiting — not by paying for it. We weigh roasting quality, sourcing, hospitality, and the room itself. Chains and franchise concepts aren't eligible. The personal picks are curated by Henrique, who visits the shops himself.
2. The rating you see is the Google rating
The score on each shop card is the shop's current Google rating, rounded to one decimal — not a number we invented. We show it because it's the rating you'd find anyway, and pulling it onto the card lets you compare spots at a glance. When we sort a list, the default order is by that rating, highest first.
3. Amenities are verified, not guessed
The tags that power our filters — specialty coffee, WiFi, outlets, laptop-friendly seating, group space, late hours — are tracked per shop and checked against Google Places data. That's what makes the lanes trustworthy: when a shop shows up under “work,” it has WiFi and outlets and laptop-friendly seating, not just one of the three.
4. Everything is re-checked weekly
Hours, ratings, and amenities are re-verified against Google Places on a weekly cycle. Neighborhood pages carry an “Updated {Month Year}” label built from the most recent verification date, so freshness is something you can see rather than a claim you have to take on faith. If a shop closes, we pull it.
What we don't do
No paid placements. No sponsored picks. No pay-for-inclusion. Money never moves a shop up the list — full policy on our disclosure page.