Intelligentsia Coffee Watertown Coffeebar

Just over the Cambridge line, Intelligentsia’s Watertown cafe offers plenty of seating in a thoughtfully designed wood-and-concrete space and even, optimistically, outside on red patio chairs and benches. The freestanding building, presence of parking, roadside sign beckoning “Coffee” to passing cars, and considerable distance from the subway (Harvard Square is a 30-minute walk away) might make you feel like Dorothy—suddenly deposited not in Oz, but perhaps Los Feliz or Silver Lake. A neighboring building painted in matching black-and-blue stripes houses the Chicago brand’s local training lab. Though pastries, from Forge Bakery, are definitely tasty, save some room for lunch at local favorite Sofra, Ana Sortun and Maura Kilpatrick’s Turkish-inspired cafe across the street. If you need a walk, check out Mt. Auburn Cemetery, where you can find 19th- and 20th-century characters of note like art collector Isabella Stewart Gardner, poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and even geodesic-dome aficionado Buckminster Fuller.