Café 24

you're on regent street, which means you're probably moving between the city centre and the hills road end of cambridge, past the old addenbrooke's site and the kind of unremarkable stretch that most visitors walk through without stopping. café 24 is reason enough to stop. it's built a genuine local following, the kind that comes from consistency rather than novelty, and if you're in cambridge for more than a day you'll likely end up here twice. the specialty coffee is taken seriously without being made into a performance. find yourself a seat, get comfortable, and order an espresso-based drink on a grey cambridge afternoon when the light off regent street is flat and the city feels like it actually belongs to people who live in it.