Stepping into Peregrine Espresso can make you forget all your cares.  This is very high praise for a place close to the Hill, frequented by Hill staffers with needy representatives, staffers who need to forget their cares as they gear up for the coming session.

I had high expectations: The Roast, a local coffee blog, had assured me that Peregrine scores a 9 for coffee.  I can attest to the fact that this place takes coffee seriously.  Like Chinatown Coffee Co., the coffee reigns supreme.

Though coffee itself is at the top of the pecking order, Peregrine scores high on customer service as well.  My barista asked me if I’d “done anything fun today.”  Had I? It was a pretty existential question.  What is fun, really? Aside from making me think, he actually asked, which is very rare.  Rare like a fine cup of coffee or hot chocolate, complete with perfect latte art.  Latte art so beautiful stirring becomes painful.

Each cup of coffee is made individually on a row of coffee drippers, each cup gets its own grounds, it’s own hot water, and its own love.  I noticed the baristas pouring milk out of glass quarts used for the organic stuff at Trader Joe’s, and thought, This is serious.

The atmosphere was serious as well.  People were there with Macs (not PCs, please) and looked intently from screen to coffee.  But the lighting was too bright to allow this studiousness to be mundane.  The music was enlivening–it’s just a happy place.

Every Eastern Market trip will now warrant a stop at Peregrine.  Just off Pennsylvania and 7th, SE, it’s a block from the Eastern Market metro and a brisk walk from the Capitol.  It’s so close to perfection, you can taste it.