The Best Coffee Shops for a Date in Boston

Thinking Cup on Tremont Street gives you an artsy room by Boston Common with several places to sit, so you can stay for coffee, tea or a full meal. We'd start with the B.A.L.T. sandwich, or keep it simple with coffee.

Start by browsing the bookstore on Trident's first level, then head upstairs or downstairs for coffee and food. The Newbury Street shop also mixes in socks and foreign magazines, including art zines and obscure trade publications, giving you plenty to look through together.

Share a cannoli or slice of cheesecake over espresso at Caffè Vittoria on Hanover Street in the North End. The Italian cafe also serves cappuccino, caffe latte, affogato and tiramisu.

Ogawa Coffee brings the Japanese chain to Downtown Crossing, with light sandwiches and Asian sweets alongside the coffee. We'd try the hot chocolate, made with Carupano dark chocolate, whole milk and heavy cream.

Warm up over hot chocolate at L.A. Burdick in Back Bay, a chocolate shop and cafe with an old-school Continental European feel. The drinking chocolate comes in dark, milk, white and spicy dark, served hot or iced, while the pastry case adds options like Earl Grey Mousse Cake and Linzer Torte.

Pair a bookstore browse with a meal at Beacon Hill Books & Cafe on Charles Street. Seasonal home cooking is served from breakfast through dinner, and the drink list covers tea, mocktails and wine. Tuesday through Saturday, breakfast runs from 8am to 10:30am and the all-day menu from 11am to 8pm; Sunday afternoon tea runs from 10am to 5pm. Walk-in seating is limited, so reserve online for parties up to eight.

Stop for a Freedom Trail Freeze at The Well Coffee House on Washington Street beside the Old State House, where local artwork fills the room and the Freedom Trail is right outside. Hours are Monday through Friday from 7am to 6pm and Saturday from 8am to 6pm.

George Howell Coffee, at street level in the Godfrey Hotel in Downtown Crossing, lets you compare cups together with single-origin pour overs and coffee flights. The single-origin espresso and drip rotate weekly, and the cafe also runs public classes with a retail area focused on learning about coffee.

Walk over from Harvard Yard to Broadsheet Coffee Roasters on Kirkland Street in Cambridge, then settle in with pastries baked in house apart from the croissants, which come from Praline Cambridge. The cafe is open Monday through Friday from 7:30am to 4pm and weekends from 8am to 4pm.

Yego in Somerville's Teele Square centers its menu on Rwandan coffee, with a name that means yes in Kinyarwanda. Order a latte, cappuccino, cold brew, pour over or matcha, then add one of the sweet or savory French pastries.