Best Coffee Shops in Smith Mountain Lake
Smith Mountain Lake, Virginia — updated August 22, 2026
Where to get an espresso drink or a morning table around Moneta and Penhook, from a locally owned coffee house and bakery to a Penhook cafe pairing lattes with Mexican pastries.
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Coffee around Smith Mountain Lake is a morning proposition. The places that actually pull espresso cluster along Scruggs Road and Booker T Washington Highway in Moneta, and most of them lock the door by early afternoon, so an after-dinner cappuccino is not really on the table here. Three spots stand out, and they differ mainly in how much of a kitchen sits behind the counter.
1. Smith Mountain Lake Coffee House
This is the closest thing the lake has to a dedicated coffee house: espresso drinks, coffee and cold brew, and a bakery under the same locally owned roof at 16430 Booker T Washington Hwy. It rates 4.5 from 415 reviews, which is enough volume to call the score settled rather than promising. Open seven days a week, 7:30 AM to 2:30 PM, with a morning menu running until 11 and an afternoon menu of lunch sandwiches, salads and bagel or croissant sandwiches after that. The breakfast wrap is one of the items reviewers photograph most. Come before 11 if you want the morning list.
2. The Little Mule Cafe
The draw here is signature lattes served alongside a Mexican bakery case, a combination nothing else near the lake offers. It sits in Penhook at 15550 Old Franklin Turnpike, south of the water, and opens at 8:00 AM Monday through Saturday and 9:00 AM on Sunday, with Sunday running latest into the evening. Beyond coffee and pastries there are sandwiches, salads and soups, including a birria sandwich of slow-cooked beef and melted white American cheese on sourdough, served with consomme. The 4.9 rating comes from 47 reviews, so treat it as an early, strong signal rather than a proven track record.
3. Old Oak Cafe
Old Oak is a sit-down breakfast restaurant rather than a coffee bar, but it is the most reliably reviewed morning room at the lake: 4.6 from 672 reviews, the largest sample of any place on this list. Find it at 400 Scruggs Rd #900 in Moneta, open mornings from 7:00 AM and closing at 2:00 PM. The menu is divided into breakfast, sandwiches and burgers, salads, beverages and sides, and a kids list, with scrambled eggs, country fried steak and an egg salad sandwich among the regulars. Go when you want a table and a full plate, not a to-go cup.
What we left off
The Blackwater Cafe is a dinner restaurant that opens at 5:00 PM Tuesday through Saturday and is closed Mondays, so it does not fit a coffee guide. Wake Cafe does not open until 11:00 AM and builds its menu around burgers, wraps, waffle fries and cheese curds. The Smith Mountain Lake Coffee House counter at EastLake Community Church runs on the same phone number, hours and menu as the main location, so it is listed once above rather than twice. A Links Coffee House entry attached to a Danville address was dropped as out of area.