Coffee shops in Des Moines, IA
Every shop here is open and doing something right, so treat it like a coffee crawl through Des Moines, in person or virtually: study how each bar is laid out, read the menu, and get a feel for the brand from their own site. Shops that roast their own beans are marked.
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Coffee shops & roasters
Crawl these cafes and roasters for bar layout, menu, and brand ideas.
- 4.5(2,738)smokeyrow.com
- 4.7(2,140)mainstreetcafeandbakery.com
- 4.1(1,453)cozycafe-johnston.com
- 4.9(830)horizonlinecoffee.com
- 4.5(821)scenicroutebakerydsm.com
- Cafe DiemCafe4.6(651)cafediem.com
- 4.8(640)porchlightcoffeehouse.com
- 4.7(630)zanzibarscoffee.com
- 4.7(567)twistedbean.com
- 4.8(437)theslowdowndsm.com
- 4.7(380)freedomblendcoffee.com
- The CoffeesmithCafe4.7(378)yourcoffeesmith.com
- 4.8(369)morningbellcoffee.com
- 4.7(353)bigacaibowl.com
- 4.9(347)therookroom.com
- Papa Kern's CafeCafe4.3(336)papakerns.com
- Northern VesselCafe4.9(332)northernvessel.com
- 4.9(328)daisychaincoffee.com
- 4.6(319)plaintalkbooksandcoffee.com
Coffee carts
Coffee carts, trucks, and trailers working this market — a lower-overhead way in.
- Iowa Coffee Cup LLC. Mobile Coffee BusinessMobile cart5.0(7)
Des Moines market snapshot
The customer base behind the coffee scene — who lives here, what they earn, and how many coffee shops already serve them. Use it to size up demand before you commit.
Des Moines has 9.4 coffee shops per 100k residents. That's above the directory median of 6.3 — a crowded scene where differentiation matters.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2020–2024 5-year estimates (via Census Reporter), 2024 release. Coffee-shop density is ShopLaunch directory data. Figures describe the Census place (Des Moines, IA); college, airport, industry, and other signals are coming in a later pass.
Similar coffee markets
Cities whose demographics most resemble Des Moines, ranked by an objective match across population, income, age, education, unemployment, commute, and coffee-shop density. A close model for what might work here.
- Chattanooga, TN185,783 people$64,523 median incomeClose on household income & unemployment
- Spokane, WA230,293 people$70,064 median incomeClose on unemployment & market size
- Knoxville, TN195,185 people$54,039 median incomeClose on market size & coffee-shop density
- Tulsa, OK413,794 people$59,838 median incomeClose on commute time & median age
Permits in Des Moines
Most coffee shops, carts, and trailers in Des Moines fall under Polk County, where the Polk County environmental health division issues the food and mobile-vending permits you need to open. The county guide lays out the exact permits, offices, and fees in the order to tackle them.
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