Coffee in Skopje: the back story

About Coffee in Skopje: the back story

By the ULTIMATE Skopje Editorial Team

Editor-in-Chief: Jai Michael

In Skopje, “let’s have a coffee” means an hour or two at a terrace table. Cafés are where friends meet, business is done and the day is planned, and the city has hundreds of them.

Turkish coffee

Coffee arrived with the Ottomans, and in the Old Bazaar you can still drink it the old way: boiled in a small long-handled pot, served thick and strong in a little cup with a glass of water and, often, a piece of lokum. Let the grounds settle before you sip.

The terrace

Modern Skopje lives on its terraces. In Debar Maalo, along the Vardar and around Macedonia Square, cafés fill from morning, and on warm evenings they turn into bars. Espresso and macchiato are the everyday orders.

A coffee in Skopje is measured in hours, not minutes.

The new wave

A lively specialty-coffee scene has grown in the centre and Debar Maalo, with places such as EDGE, The Dude and Lusso brewing single-origin filter coffee and espresso, and roasters selling beans to take home.

Something sweet

Baklava, tulumbi and kadaif from the Old Bazaar’s sweet shops go perfectly with a Turkish coffee. For chocolate, look for the shops of Evropa, Skopje’s long-established confectioner.

Our advice: have a Turkish coffee in the Old Bazaar with something sweet, spend a slow morning on a Debar Maalo terrace, and try one of the specialty cafés for a filter coffee. Never rush a coffee here: nobody else will.

Opening hours, prices and seasonal openings change, so please check with Coffee in Skopje: the back story before you go.