Meet the TikToker spending a year reviewing 100 Philly coffee shops

TikToker Gloria Sullivan has an itemized spreadsheet of every coffee shop she plans to try in Philadelphia over the next year.

The spreadsheet — which is organized by neighborhood and includes ratings out of 10 for standard iced coffees, tea offerings, and overall vibes — is not Sullivan’s attempt at project managing her life. Rather, she sees it as a public service.

Sullivan, a Cheltenham native who goes by @_gloyoyo_ on TikTok, is on a quest to review 100 Philadelphia coffee shops for her more than 200,000 followers.

Inspired by a string of TikTokers reviewing every coffee shop in Washington, Sullivan began the series last month with a review of Fairmount’s OCF Coffee House. Since then, she has visited nine establishments, including Vineyards Cafe in Francisville and Uncle Bobbie’s Coffee and Books in Germantown, which earned the first 10 out of 10. Sullivan hopes to wrap up in summer 2024.

The rules are simple: Order an iced black Earl Grey tea (no sugar) and an iced coffee with half and half. No Starbucks, Dunkin’, or Saxbys. The only La Colombe Sullivan will acknowledge is the Fishtown flagship.

“The goal is just to tell people where to go if they’re in the neighborhood,” said Sullivan, 26, who resides in Manayunk. “I feel like people always default to Starbucks or Dunkin’ when there are so many options.”

Rapid-fire restaurant reviews repeatedly go viral on TikTok because they offer a breezy look at what it would be like to eat a meal or get a cup of coffee yourself. A pan of the atmosphere or shot of the menu has been proven to make viewers more likely to try a place they would’ve never patronized otherwise, according to a recent study from marketing firm MGH.

Sullivan is a former School District of Philadelphia middle school English teacher who now works for the district on educator recruitment. Her first foray into TikTok was in summer 2021, when she began posting “goofy, low-stakes” teacher-centric videos. Sullivan’s following grew, however, a year later when she began to post Semi-Homemade Cooking with Sandra Lee-style recipes from her kitchen.

Sullivan’s no-frills recipes, like those brownie ice cream sandwiches, crème brûlée blueberry bagels, and pastina, have been viewed upward of 5 million times.

When The Inquirer joined Sullivan on a since-posted review of East Falls plant-slash-coffee-shop Vault + Vine, she recorded her coffee observations as voice memos on her phone like a proper food critic and captured bite-sized videos of the details, like jars of loose leaf teas and late-summer bouquets.

“The Earl Grey is very fruity, but not in a bergamot way,” Sullivan said into her phone, licking her lips. “It’s good.”

No one in the shop noticed Sullivan filming, and her video’s casualness takes practice: Sullivan needed a few tries to get a satisfactory shot of herself stirring in the half-and-half or sticking a straw in the lid of a cup.

Sullivan developed her fixation on coffee shops in a roundabout way, as places to sit when she shows up too early to meet a friend or as the end to long walks.

“I get coffee so often because I like the activity of going to get a coffee, if that makes sense,” Sullivan said.

Her favorite places to get an iced coffee with half-and-half — never milk — are, surprisingly, not coffee shops, but rather establishments that just so happen to serve coffee. Sullivan loves Austin-style taco spot Taco Heart for house-made tortillas and a coffee blend sourced from Herman’s in South Philly, and Chestnut Hill bakery Night Kitchen becauseits iced coffees come with iced cubes also made from coffee.

To Sullivan, a good cup of iced coffee is dark with a touch of sweetness, and never the color of iced tea, which likely means it’s been over-brewed.

“I like when you pour the cream in and you can see it swirl,” said Sullivan, who makes her iced coffee at home with a Nespresso pod, her precious half-and-half, and occasionally, flavored cold foam.

Sullivan is taking recommendations for the next coffee shops to try. On her short list: Chapterhouse Cafe and Gallery in Queen Village and the Tasty, a vegan South Philly diner with a rotating list of caffeinated beverages.

“I don’t think I’m going to get tired of caffeine by the end of this,” Sullivan said. “I literally have had at least one cup of iced black tea for most of my life. I’m ride-or-die.”