George Howell Coffee (The Godfrey Hotel)

George Howell opened Coffee Connection in Harvard Square in 1975, grew it to two dozen stores, sold it to Starbucks in 1994, then started over under his own name a decade later. This location, inside the Godfrey Hotel in Downtown Crossing, opened in June 2016 as the roaster's third and largest cafe, built around a retail area the company calls the Exploratorium, part shop and part classroom for anyone who wants to learn what separates one single origin lot from another.

The drink list runs through a weekly rotation of pour overs, espresso and Modbar single cup filters, built on Howell's long running argument that coffee deserves the same attention to farm and terroir as wine. Public cupping classes run out of the same room, and the shop stays open all 365 days of the year, holidays included.