Whether you're craving the perfect latte or searching for an afternoon pick-me-up, the Triangle's coffee scene is bursting with top-notch spots.

• With help from readers, we've rounded up a list of the 12 best coffee shops in our region — from bustling cafes to hidden gems — worth adding to your regular rotation.

How it works: We considered a host of factors when putting this ranking together, including quality of the coffee, customer service, the vibe and the cafe's overall non-coffee offerings.

• We always pay our own way.

Here are our top five:

1. The Left Hook — Since opening inside Gussie's last spring, The Left Hook has built out a team with a reputation for slinging unrivaled espresso drinks and next-level customer service — the kind that makes you feel like you're a celebrity when you're grabbing a morning cup of joe.
2. Jubala Coffee — A tried and true fixture of Raleigh's coffee scene, Jubala's brews and biscuits are some of the best around.
3. Joe Van Gogh — An OG of the Triangle's specialty coffee scene that has grown into one the area's largest roasters over the past three decades.
4. Cocoa Cinnamon — It all started by selling coffee via bicycle in 2011. More than a decade later, owners Areli Barrera Grodski and Leon Grodski Barrera have three locations across Durham and are award-winning roasters.
5. Black & White — Founded by two U.S. barista champions, Black & White is the coffee nerd's favorite coffee shop and continues to push some of the most creative roasts in the country.

Go deeper: View the rest of the list here

Also tell us what restaurants we missed. Hit reply or send us a note at [email protected] and we will list honorable mentions in the near future.

The owners of the Raleigh restaurant Stanbury are in the early stages of opening a new dining concept.

Why it matters: The Stanbury, a laid-back neighborhood haunt based just north of downtown since 2013, is one of the city's most popular and idiosyncratic restaurants.

• It's known for serving funky seasonal dishes and refreshing cocktails from its intimate, converted laundromat space on Blount Street.

Driving the news: The new business will be next to the existing Stanbury restaurant, at 938 N. Blount St., in the former Escazu Chocolates location, according to Will and Joseph Jeffers, Stanbury's co-owners.

• Escazu recently relocated to the Gateway Plaza Shopping Center after 15 years on North Blount Street. This felt like an organic opportunity to try something new, Joseph Jeffers told Axios.

Zoom in: Joseph Jeffers said it's too soon to detail what will go into the Escazu space, and it's just now filing permits with the city. But the goal would be to share an expanded kitchen with the Stanbury.

• That would give the restaurant more kitchen space to expand its culinary offerings.
• Jeffers added that he doesn't want anything about Stanbury to change as it takes over the Escazu space. "We want to keep Stanbury small and intimate," he said.

Share this story ... Go deeper: Axios Raleigh's best restaurants of 2024

🔥 The Triangle's hottest ZIP code for real estate in the second quarter of the year was 27605 in Raleigh, an area that includes Broughton High School and areas around The Village District. (Triangle Business Journal 🔒)

🫀 Duke University has revealed a new technique its researchers have devised to improve heart transplants that come via donation after circulatory death. (Associated Press)

• The researchers believe the new technique, which reanimates the heart outside of the body, could expand the donor pool for pediatric heart transplants by 20%.

🌀 Gov. Josh Stein declared a state of emergency for 13 counties, including Wake, Durham and Orange, because of flooding from Tropical Storm Chantal. (WRAL)

The Trump administration is being sued by 20 states, including North Carolina, that are seeking to block the cancellation of a grant program that helped protect against potential natural disasters.

The big picture: "By unilaterally shutting down FEMA's flagship pre-disaster mitigation program, Defendants have acted unlawfully and violated core separation of powers principles," says the lawsuit that was filed in Boston on Wednesday.

• The program has helped state, local and territorial governments and tribal nations work to reduce their hazard risk.

Driving the news: In April, FEMA announced that it would end the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities grant program and cancel all BRIC applications from fiscal years 2020–2023.

Zoom in: Hillsborough was one local town expecting money from the BRIC program, with the money to be used to move a water pump from a floodplain, WCHL reported.

• A full list of BRIC grant-winning applications in North Carolina can be found here.

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National Weather Service offices, including the Raleigh office, have issued a record number of year-to-date flash flood warnings in 2025 as storms have brought devastating and deadly rainfall to central North Carolina, Texas and elsewhere.

• The NWS Raleigh office covers a 31-county area in central North Carolina, from Winston-Salem to Rocky Mount.

Why it matters: The numbers reflect the recent above-average rainfall we've had in parts of the country, with some slow-moving storms dropping lots of water relatively quickly, Axios' Alex Fitzpatrick writes.

By the numbers: NWS offices issued 3,160 flash flood warnings nationwide this year through July 16, according to a tracker at Iowa State University's Iowa Environmental Mesonet.

• That's the most for that period in any year since records began in 1986.

So far this year, the NWS Raleigh office has issued 53, according to IEM. That is a record and the most since there were 41 in 2010.

Go deeper: Why flash floods like those in Texas and New York are becoming more common