Mocha Marianne’s

Mocha Marianne’s used to be on the corner of Fourth and Wood in an old bank building. When she closed shop due to increases in rent, my business partner and I thought we had lost the best caffeine store in the world. Where would we go to get our six shots over ice twice a day? Who else in downtown had perfected the art of extracting every drop of java goodness out the those La Prima beans? Where could we get our daily fix of liquid no-​doz now that Marianne was gone?
Well, as luck would have it, we didn’t need to find another spot. For lo, the Mexico City restaurant on Wood Street had moved into the pizza place next door, leaving a space for Marianne to re-​open. And not only did she re-​open, but she expanded her menu to include some of the tastiest sandwiches and salads in downtown.
While I miss the bank vault (yes, one of the rooms in her old place was the vault from an old bank), I think she’s going to do very well in the far more open physical space and far more visible location she’s in.
Because she’s an expert in coffee (having worked for La Prima prior to opening up her own place) she picks out the best beans and roasts that La Prima offers. And being the coffee witch that she is, she has fine tuned her espresso machines and her technique to pull every rich creamy drop of goodness from the beans.
So she’s better, cheaper, and way more friendly than Starbucks. And she’s always got a smile on her face! Workers and students of downtown Pittsburgh UNITE in your support for a local coffee shop and an owner who has her stuff together.