all-day cafe and bakery · $$
Little Finch
Olive & Finch's counter-service cafe on 16th Street, coffee at six, cocktails at night.
Little Finch is the smaller, all-day sibling of Mary Nguyen's Olive & Finch group, on the 16th Street pedestrian mall at Blake, a few blocks from Union Station. It opens at 6am for pastries and espresso, runs through salads, sandwiches, soups and flatbreads at lunch, and shifts to wine and cocktails with a happy hour from 4pm to close. Counter service, no reservations, and the pastry case is the reason most people are in line. A rare downtown spot that is honestly useful at both 7am and 8pm.
Why go. Breakfast or a laptop hour near Union Station without a hotel-lobby price tag.
Mornings before 8am are calm; the same pastries are gone by mid-afternoon on weekends.
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