Polcari's Coffee Shop

11/05/09

a must stop

by gambino

love this place. unfortunately most the time i go to north end on sunday and they are closed. but this place is a rare gem and one of the many reasons i love the north end so very much. very old school, nice guys in a top of the line coffee shop. the espresso i always get here cannot be beat!

• Pros: fantastic
• Cons: closed sunday

01/04/09

Expresso beans so good I have them shipped to Californina.

by ScubaJohnHB

Do yourself a favor and go see Bobby at Polcari's. I live in California and have expresso beans shipped cross country or pick up them up myself on my frequent visits to Boston.

• Pros: great high-quality coffee beans, friendly, NOT Starbucks

12/21/08

A lovely neighborhood spice shop

by RyanRose

Polcari's feels as though it belongs to another time, when people headed down to the corner shop to pick up their dry goods and shoot the breeze with their neighbors, rather than jumping into the Land Rover and heading to Whole Foods. At Polcari's, you can find almost every kind of spice, loose teas, coffee beans and dried fruit, and so of course it smells wonderful inside. The prices are also from another time -- rates are per pound and you get a lot for the money. The counter staff are incredibly helpful and patient, despite the fact that it can get crowded on busy weekends -- especially with their older customers, with whom they converse loudly and politely in Italian. I sincerely hope this plays stays in business forever, which is why I try to patronize it every time I'm in the North End -- which is regrettably not often enough.

• Pros: Reasonable prices, wide selection, friendly helpful staff
• Cons: Can get crowded

Editorial Review

by Contributor

Popular North End gourmet shop carries dozens of international coffees, plus hundreds of teas, spices, extracts and garden seeds.