We all know the sensation of walking into someone else’s wedding party; a well-dressed crowd of faces turning not quite disapprovingly, checking to see whether you’re with the bride or with the groom. The glare’s a little paralyzing, and it takes a lot of guts to line up for the buffet regardless.

The lines at Double Eye are a lot like this, and though it might take a while (weeks or months, depending on the seriousness of your caffeine shakes) for the regulars to give you their not insignificant nod of recognition, the coffee’s worth it (especially chugged down with their delicious one-bite custard cakes, or in their original Portuguese, pastéis de nata).

The service is brisk, but not unkind, basically like an Italian coffee shop’s. And like those crowded locales, there’s no inside seating here either, so the artfully casual customers take their cups to go or linger on Akazienstrasse outside if the weather permits, further staking their claim to this their own local coffee joint. There’s no avoiding the line, we asked the owner, and there’s no un-busy time at Double Eye (hasn’t been for all its 10 years). Their recession-proof prices have as much to do with this as their home-roasted beans; an espresso will only cost you a euro, add fifty cents for a café creme.