Be sure you can stand the smell of hookah smoke before deciding to spend any period of time in Espresso Art Cafe — the place reeks. It’s a small, windowless space with apple-flavored water pipes every 3 feet. There’s barely room to find a seat during busy hours, and the overflow easily fills the patio on University Boulevard, too.

But we all know hipsters like to smoke, and thus I ventured in.

Espresso Art has a kind of worn, sagging feeling. It’s pretty chill, but it’s definitely the place you go to decompress after a big exam, not to cram for it. The coffee is only so-so. Though, their liquor-based coffee drinks offer a welcome alternative to the other cafes near campus. Why have a latte when you can have a Baileys latte? It’s the nectar of the hipsters: espresso beans and booze.

The best part by far, though, is the bar in the back. It’s all worn brick and warm wood and old books and dim lights and Grecian busts. The cushy chairs and low tables are more suited to taking a hookah and a book than a coffee and laptop. It’s the place for the carefree hipster, the guy who has no classes — or at least none he puts any effort into. It’s the place to avoid during finals season when you have an urge to murder anyone who appears to be having fun.

But when your own finals are over and it’s time to have a drink and a smoke in a warm, cozy bar, Espresso Art is the place to go. You’ll have to share space with hookah-sucking bros and basic girls, but there’s plenty of space for three hipsters to make themselves at home.

_______________

Follow Jacquelyn Oesterblad on Twitter.