Can you remember the last time you had a salad with fresh, crisp spring greens, strawberries, goat cheese, candied walnuts, and pomegranate vinaigrette -- from a drive-thru? What about coffee that didn't taste like a foot?

If you answered "never", give D'lish Kitchen and Coffee House a try. We must admit we are impressed with their mission to make fast food fresh and healthy. But more than that, their food is just so darn tasty.

Heather Hoch

Now available in your car, though the pomegranate viniagrette might get a bit messy.

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D'lish operates in the remnants of an old burrito shop off of Scottsdale Road near Thomas, which is why the building has a drive-thru. They also offer indoor and patio seating.

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Anti-incest t-shirts, a collection of art, and bedazzled bras form the curious collection of wall-adornments that span Cup'O'Karma's tiny interior. This small coffee joint, which is in the middle of in a strip mall across Southern Avenue from MCC, combines the good feeling of helping others with a good caffeine buzz.

Heather Hoch

Cup'O'Karma offers a nice place for MCC to chill.

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Cup'O'Karma is run in a donated building and owned by a non-profit organization called the National Advocacy & Training Network. The ladies who operate the café are members of SEEDs, a domestic violence support organization for women.

Several of the items for sale in Cup'O'Karma come with a message of women's empowerment and activism. While supporting a fantastic cause is admirable, we really came for the coffee.

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This week we spend some time at cafés near other campuses in the Valley. Today, we're featuring an ASU West campus coffee shop in Glendale with a couple of quirks.

We're not ones to whine about coffee and pastries. We recognize a good thing when we see it, and Next Coffee Co. seemed like a pretty good thing.

The café was spacious, cool, and has ample seating. Everything looked clean and pleasant, but as we approached the counter, the mildly obtrusive man working there kept pestering us to figure out what we wanted and order.

We quickly noticed out of the four sandwiches, four wraps, and four salad varieties on the menu, there wasn't a single vegetarian option for lunch. They even offered a lasagna-like creation, but that too contained chicken.

Heather Hoch

Luckily for vegetarians, this cinnamon roll is one of Next Coffee's meatless options.

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In an effort to show its dedication to sustainability, the city of Phoenix revamped the historic A.E. England Building and opened it to shops. Fair Trade Café snatched up one of the retail spaces, in a prime location across from ASU's Cronkite School and University Center, and opened its doors about two weeks ago.

Maintaining the sustainability archetype, the vintage architecture is offset by an ultra-modern interior. And we ask why? Don't these newly-opened spaces look like they were yanked from the pages of an IKEA catalogue?

Heather Hoch

Is there anybody out there?

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Drip Coffee Lounge is tucked away in a multitude of shops and eateries off 7th Street south of Thomas. It's a little hard to find and usually only open until 3 p.m.

Overcoming those hurdles, the strong coffee and impressive lunch menu are worth the minor inconveniences. However, we will say that this little coffee joint is not suited for the typical college student's tastes.

Drip's veggie sandwich is full of arugula, havarti cheese, and several other fresh veggies, toasted between two ciabatta slices. It's a grown-up sandwich with complex flavors that you won't find at Subway.

Heather Hoch

Fancy and filling: the unbeatable combo.

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U-Pass holders rejoice! This week's Campus Coffee series uncovers some café gems in downtown Phoenix.

Take the light rail westbound to Central and Camelback, head south a couple blocks, and you'll find  Lola Coffee, a cozy little café popping out of an equally delightful little shopping center. If you need more directions than that, look for the bright green building.

Heather Hoch

Lola Coffee looks posh and sunny with its big, bright window.

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For Tempe's eastsiders, Gold Bar Espresso has been a staple for many years.

If Solo Cafe (which we covered yesterday) is decorated like a great-aunt's house, Gold Bar is decorated more like that aunt who is too young to be a hippie but too old to be anything too hip. It's a nice, family-owned-and-operated establishment with a mix of ASU and MCC students.

Heather Hoch

OK, so Gold Bar has some kitsch... They also have the comfort and quiet to back it up.

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With school back in session, 'tis the season to start cramming and caffeinating. This week, we head to Tempe to see what main campus cafes have to offer.

Solo Café has been on the corner of Mill Avenue and Baseline Road for almost two years. The café is cute, clean, and the coffee is great. So why haven't we heard of it?

We blame a syndrome most ASU-area dwellers seem to get, in which they find it difficult to go anywhere south of Broadway (not to mention, Cartel Coffee Lab has had a hold over us since the day it opened). However, we think it's worth it to take the short three-mile jaunt off-campus and visit Solo.

Heather Hoch

Solo Cafe hides an impressive Ralph Steadman-style mural behind their counter.

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Tags:

asu, coffee, espresso, pastries, solo cafe, tempe