Today’s Central Square is truly the center, the convergence point for Cambridge’s diverse cultures and lively commerce. Cambridge’s main artery, Massachusetts Avenue, changes character every few blocks from Arlington to the Harvard Bridge (Pedantry alert: Many mistakenly call it the MIT or Mass Ave. Bridge), but is at its most vivid and expressive in Central Square. 

In my youth, Central was a few blocks of working-class Massachusetts Avenue, offering necessary but banal goods and services – functional but not a destination. While Central Square has been a music venue for more than 50 years at places such as the Cantab Lounge, today you will also find books, dance, vintage clothing, a Korean grocer and, yes, interesting coffee. And people, people! If you take a window seat at one of the many restaurants, let’s say Lanner on Pearl (excellent noodles), you’ll see a parade of local and animated characters. In summer, food can be had outside, too, from myriad sidewalk patios to the Monday farmers’ market in the parking lot behind H Mart and an occasional dumpling festival. There’s a lot coffee hounds, too. On three of our recent shivery rainy days, I found coffee solace in these excellent places.

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Jaho

My first Jaho cup was years ago in Salem, where it originated and where its beans are still roasted. I was attracted to its good roasts and because it used (among other technologies) the siphon brewing method. This took me back to early trips to Japan, when many kissaten (old-style coffeehouses) used siphon as the main coffee making method. It looks like a Victorian laboratory device: two stacked glass units connected by a rubber gasket with a sterno-type heating unit underneath. It’s fun to watch as the heat element is removed after the grounds have been infused, the vacuum is broken and the coffee rushes from the top unit to the bottom glass vessel ready to serve. 

Sadly, Jaho’s shops no longer make coffee with this contraption, but the coffee is still good, though a somewhat darker roast than I prefer (I always ask for medium or light roast for a drip coffee). The takeaway cups are pretty in pink, with that little tab on top that keeps the coffee from spilling as you walk. But I sit and sip, as do many others, including those who take advantage of the U-shaped counter that offers laptop users a comfortable perch. 

Jaho Central Square is lively and even glittery, with pink neon, Ruth-Asawa-like wire light covers, and the promise of early evening wine and conversation. I’m curious about the slide to night service and I remember that the Lamplighter brewery nearby has a similar transition. Some time I will survey the coffee places that morph into wine bars in the evening.

Even without the siphon, Jaho retains a subliminal Japanese presence: There are ramune (old-style Japanese lemonade bottles), lemon mochi sweets and a roast called “kissaten.” A recent trip to the Salem store revealed similar styles and cheerful décor. Jaho has another shop on Washington Street near Chinatown, where the clutter and bright lights are just as welcoming. 

Caphe

What a surprise, walking down Massachusetts Avenue toward the middle of Central, to find a new coffee shop serving excellent caphe (Vietnamese coffee). The theme of this week, beyond being about Central Square, might well be diversity of ambiance and décor. Caphe is aesthetic minimalism, attached to a gallery, plus warm hospitality. The owner, Tam Le, who also owns Pho Hoa in Dorchester and Le Madeline in Quincy, told me about Caphe’s relationship with the Street Theory Collective, the gallery in which the café is embedded. It too is new, and at my visit featured a wonderful exhibition of mostly local African American art, paintings and sculptures, filling an open, high-ceilinged space with vibrant color. You can carry your Vietnamese coffee into the art space, which has seating.

Caphe uses its own roasts, created in Dorchester where a lively Vietnamese community offers wonderful food (ask me sometime). Vietnamese coffee is typically made with a phin – a small metal container that sits over a cup, with a pierced bottom and a cover. It’s simple: Put the grounds in the top, pour hot water over it, let it drip through the tiny holes into your cup. But there’s a more popular brew: iced. You can put the phin over a tall glass in which you have placed a few tablespoons of sweetened condensed milk and a lot of ice and let the hot coffee dribble on the ice and thick milk. 

The founder of the Street Theory Collective, Victor Quiñonez, is an artist and designer, and some of his work is displayed in Caphe. There are oddities on the shelves – old speakers, ceramics and a curious eye-catching instrument, an elegant wooden portable organ. Le said a woman from Bangladesh came in and recognized it as an organ found commonly in South Asia. I recognized it, too, having seen it in Vietnam, where missionary preachers take it village to village and play hymns to attract crowds. 

Le says that many Vietnamese coffeehouses here use Café du Monde coffee, known to visitors to the eponymous cafe in New Orleans and which has a distinctive bitterness from the addition of chicory, an older French practice. Caphe’s coffee is grown in Vietnam and is naturally a tad bitter, because is a robusta species. (Most specialty coffees now are made with arabica beans, although iced coffee and espressos are best made with robusta.)

I ordered iced, the “classic” on the board, and it took me back to the (inevitably hot) day I had it first, years ago in Hanoi. Nice when coffee helps your taste buds travel.

Andala Coffee House

In contrast to the newcomer, Caphe, Andala has been a cornerstone of Central Square for 20 years, welcoming visitors to an evocation of “Old Jerusalem.” It has regulars and then there are those who stand agape inside the door, seeing for the first time the luxuriant color, aromas and welcoming, deeply encultured spaces. You may come for the coffee or the fresh mint tea and a plate of pita and hummus. But you’ll stay for the conversation in this convivial place.

Each room has its own character. The glassed-in porch is charming and romantic. To either side of the entrance are rooms filled with tables, a larger one often filled with regulars to the left. The rooms have lavishly applied Middle Eastern art and crafts that add their own flavor to the food and coffee: You imbibe the atmosphere as you sip your coffee. For warmer weather, there is a sunken outdoor patio to the right of the front door – a place for watching passersby and sipping an iced drink, perhaps a hibiscus lemonade or a raspberry mint.

Of course there is a full range of coffee, but try the “Arabic,” which is the same as the Turkish coffee, dense and rich, but with cardamom added. Hummus (several varieties) and “Arabic bread” (pita) is a mainstay, and you can get it with merguez sausage or sumac-spiced chicken and sauteed onions. Or kebabs with yoghurt-mint sauce. Or falafel. I’m very hungry!

Jaho, 425 Massachusetts Ave., Lafayette Square, Cambridge (6:30 a.m. to 11 p.m.)

Caphe, inside Street Theory Collective, 541 Massachusetts Ave., Central Square, Cambridge (daily except Tuesdays, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.)

Andala Coffee House, 286 Franklin St., Cambridgeport (9 a.m. to 11 p.m. Monday to Friday; 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. Saturday and Sunday)

Corky White, a food anthropologist at Boston University, has lived in Cambridge since 1953 with long sojourns in Japan. She has written articles on coffee for Standart Magazine and books including “Cooking for Crowds” (in its 40th Anniversary edition) “Coffee Life in Japan” and, with her son, Ben Wurgaft, “Ways of Eating.” Corky is grounded in coffee and welcomes suggestions at cwhite@csindie.com.

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Corky White

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