Where’s your favorite place to grab a cup of coffee and catch up? According to Springfield residents, it’s a little shop on the corner of West Cook and Spring Street, just a block away from the Illinois State Museum. 

It’s the vintage charm of Vinegar Hill Mall and classic, cozy feel that gives Wm. Van’s Cafe a bustling cult following. 

Not just a cult following, but now a position on America’s best independent coffee shops, as Illinois’ top caffeine spot.

Serving breakfast, brunch and aesthetics worth a picture or two, Wm. Van’s average rating was 4.46 out of five.

General Manager Sydney Huffman said the growing interest in local coffee spots comes from the experience and that it really does matter if your barista knows you.

“Not only are you supporting your local community, but you have more personable experiences when you’re at your local shop,” Huffman said. “Your morning coffee run becomes more than an iced latte; it’s a chance to connect with the familiar faces.”

The business regularly rotates the drink menu depending on season and place an emphasis on quality over quantity – Huffman says in the past nine months she’s been GM, the most important part is seeing what sticks in the menu and strikes a chord with coffee fans and finding a way to add it to the next menu.

The top three local coffee spots nationwide are The Espresso Bar in Taos, New Mexico at 4.93 stars out of five, Prestogeorge Coffee and Tea in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania at 4.90 and Iris Bagel and Coffee House in Arlington, Texas with 4.86.

Big is out – small is in

According to OnDeck, big chain cafés are saving money by opening smaller premises to minimize costs and concentrate on walk-through trade. Meanwhile, independent cafés are capitalizing on their already cozy premises by delivering personality, quality and good company to customers looking to sit down with a brew and a pastry — and maybe even return to the counter for more.

The specialty coffee shop market is tipped to grow by $39.17 billion from 2022 to 2027, driven by the indie sector. The same follows suit for Springfield; the city has seen a growth in locally-owned coffee shops in the past year trying to enter the market.

Methodology 

The rankings are put together by OnDeck, a platform offering loans for small businesses, using publicly available Tripadvisor pages for rankings. Building a list of the major cities in every state, the five-star rated local establishments were isolated from chains. 

Lastly, cities were ranked based on the weighted average five-star rating across all independent coffee shops in that city. 

This analysis was completed in October 2024.

Claire Grant writes about business, growth and development and other news topics for The State Journal-Register. She can be reached at CLGrant@gannett.com; and on X (Formerly known as Twitter): @Claire_Granted