This story is part of a partnership between “City Lights” / WABE” and Rough Draft Atlanta called “The Beverage Beat with Beth McKibben.” As a “City Lights” contributor, McKibben joins the program monthly to highlight her most recent Rough Draft story on Atlanta’s cocktail, wine, coffee, and nonalcoholic beverage scene. Listen to her discuss this story here.
Eugene Buchko didn’t set out to become Atlanta’s unofficial coffee scene spokesperson when he launched Atlanta Coffee Shops in 2018. But that’s exactly what he is to thousands of coffee lovers across metro Atlanta who frequent Buchko’s website to read blog posts on new shops or peek at the color-coded coffee shop map he keeps meticulously organized and updated.
The site’s Instagram account includes over 23,000 followers, acting as an interactive calling card for Atlanta Coffee Shops.
There are 4,000 subscribers to the newsletter, where Buchko offers weekly Q&As with coffee shop owners, behind-the-scenes takes, and sneak peeks at upcoming shops and coffee-related events.
You’ll never see corporate chains like Starbucks on the site – or rarely locally owned chains with several locations. Atlanta Coffee Shops is reserved explicitly for small, independent coffee shops and cafes.
When Buchko first launched Atlanta Coffee Shops, it was a simple landing page to house his photos. He never intended the site to be anything more than that. Buchko saw himself as just a guy who found common ground at coffee shops with other remote workers like himself. His initial focus was on photography for the site, honing in on the design and curious visual details at the shops he worked from each week.
As time wore on, however, he became intrigued by the culture, beverages, and people who gathered at such places all over Atlanta to work, read, or meet friends.
Related Story: The Reading Room transforms Java Monkey space into a coffee and wine bar in Decatur
By 2020, Buchko had curated a small list of coffee shops centered mostly around the city. Photography eventually morphed into blogging about his coffee shop experiences.
“The photography has always been central to me, and I think to this day, it still is,” Buchko said. “The broader picture is that I am more interested in the curatorial element . . . the focus on spaces and places like the design of the shops and also the founder stories. Coffee is important, but I would say, maybe that’s just one component.”
Buchko wrote his first blog post for Atlanta Coffee Shops following a 2018 visit to Chattahoochee Coffee Company in Vinings. Located at the Walton complex, Buchko referred to the shop as an “oasis” and “retreat” due to its peaceful surroundings nestled along the Chattahoochee River away from the hustle and bustle of Akers Mill Road.
Nearly seven years later, Buchko’s site is now an authoritative resource guide to local coffee shops, thanks to his dedication and passion for amplifying the scene.
By day, Buchko works in finance, crunching numbers and analyzing data. But he devotes much of his spare time on the weekends to exploring local coffee shops, interviewing owners and baristas, and updating the website with blog posts, photography, tasting and pop-up events, and adding new shops to the map.
Google imposes a limit on the number of points allowed on a map. So, between current and archived listings, Buchko estimates the map includes almost 300 coffee shops, with a radius spanning around 100 miles from the center of Atlanta. You’ll find a smattering of shops in the North Georgia mountains and shops as far south as LaGrange and Milledgeville on the map.
“[Atlanta Coffee Shops] is my creative outlet,” said Buchko. “It’s kind of like, if I wasn’t doing this, what else could I be doing that’s creative?”
Buchko, who regularly orders cappuccinos, rarely focuses on just one drink when spotlighting a coffee shop on the site. Instead, he tries to highlight entire coffee and tea programs, especially if the menu offers noteworthy seasonal or specialty drinks.
If shops or cafes serve cocktails incorporating coffee, he’ll feature those on Atlanta Coffee Shops, too. The current map includes at least 50 places serving coffee-based cocktails like the espresso martini and variations on Irish coffee.
“I try to highlight what makes the [coffee cocktails interesting or unique,]” he said. “For example, the profile I did on Postern Coffee at Minhwa Spirits. The espresso martini cocktail called ‘Beans’ is made from Postern Coffee’s espresso and then the soju from Minhwa Spirits.”
Related stories: Add these Atlanta-made gins and sojus to your home bar
Despite the success of Atlanta Coffee Shops, don’t call Buchko an influencer. He doesn’t consider himself one. He simply operates Atlanta Coffee Shops to service the community. Running Atlanta Coffee Shops is basically Buchko’s second job. Yet he never considered monetizing his work for the site until 2023.
Buchko now offers two sponsorship levels for interested local coffee shops. His aim with these sponsorships is two-fold.
A handful of sponsorships allows Buchko to continue traveling around metro Atlanta visiting coffee shops for the site with a little less strain on his personal wallet.
For shop owners, a sponsorship acts as marketing to promote their businesses and events on Atlanta Coffee Shops. A sponsorship gets a coffee shop a banner ad on the website for up to two weeks, a dedicated blog post, and shoutouts on Instagram and in the newsletter. The site itself gets 50,000 page views per month. If you search for “Atlanta coffee” on Google, more often than not, Buchko’s site comes up as the first result.
Most of the shops highlighted on the site aren’t sponsored and are brought to Buchko’s attention by followers and subscribers. Regardless of how shops land on the site, those featured in blog posts and/or noted as a point on the map typically receive a boost in business.
“I’ve seen positive reception from coffee shop owners, which I always love to hear in terms of like, ‘okay, yeah, Eugene profiled this coffee shop, and now we have some newcomers that visited us,’’ said Buchko. “Maybe people don’t check it out immediately, but they put [a shop] on their saved list.”
Buchko also features coffee shops from his travels, noting the cool trends, impressive drinks menus, and other compelling aspects of the caffeine scene in a particular city.
He sees Atlanta’s scene as growing and expanding in ways that set it apart from well-known coffee cities like Seattle and Portland, especially when it comes to the diversity of shops and the number of local coffee roasteries found throughout the metro area.
“Maybe in the west, there are more specialty-type coffee shops compared to Atlanta. I try to put that into perspective when I visit a coffee shop,” he said. “But out of 200-plus coffee shops, there’s more than 40 that are also roasters in Atlanta. And if they’re roasting, that’s already a unique and interesting story in itself because it’s a difficult proposition to become both a roaster and a coffee shop.”
Buchko likes the collaborative nature of the coffee scene in Atlanta, as seen through the many wholesale programs and partnerships between local roasteries and restaurants and coffee shops.
As the founder of Atlanta Coffee Shops, people often ask Buchko for recommendations or his favorite spots to visit. Buchko always hits back with a few questions to help guide his answers.
For example, if you’re looking for a coffee shop offering the trifecta of monthly partnerships with different roasters, exceptional seasonal drinks, and good breakfast sandwiches, Buchko recommends Academy Coffee, located inside Kinship Butchery and Sundry in Virginia-Highland.
For people looking to geek out over roasting and brewing techniques and sample a variety of coffees from around the world — including drinks made with Geisha coffee beans — Buchko advises visiting Belux Coffee in Roswell and Alpharetta.
If design and vibe are your forte when it comes to chilling at a coffee shop, Buchko said Alchemist Trading Co. in Johns Creek features a space filled with artwork.
In some ways, Buchko has been unwittingly documenting the evolution of the Atlanta coffee scene since founding his site in 2018.
And while the pace of new coffee shops opening around Atlanta has slowed over the last two years, Buchko still finds an angle to continue covering shops for his readers and followers. For instance, he recently created a guide to coffee shops offering a variety of milk alternatives and a guide to Atlanta restaurants serving excellent coffee and coffee drinks during weekend brunch.
“It’s just a matter of opening your eyes because Atlanta has everything from really craft specialty coffee to coffee shops with great food options and coffee shops that are just beautiful,” Buchko said of keeping Atlanta Coffee Shops updated with fresh perspectives and content. “There’s something for everybody. Absolutely.”
