What to order if you only have ten minutes

Most mornings, somebody comes through the door, looks at the queue, looks at their watch, and leaves. That bothers me more than it probably should, because in almost every case there was a fast option and they did not know about it.

So here is the honest internal guide: what is quick, what is not, and when.

The two moves that skip the line

Order-ahead tickets print on a separate rail in the kitchen and are timed to your pickup slot, not to when you ordered. Eight to twelve minutes is realistic for hot food, three to six for drinks and anything from the case.

• Order ahead on the website. Your bag goes on the shelf just inside the front door with your name on it. You do not join the espresso queue at all.
• At Church Street, the south marketplace door puts you at the pickup shelf before you reach the register line. Most regulars do not know this either.

Before 8 am: take the pastry

The case is at its fullest between 6:30 and 8:30 and grabbing from it is instant. A butter croissant and a drip coffee is about ninety seconds from door to sidewalk, and the croissant came out of the oven inside the last two hours.

If you want something hot and fast in this window, the plain and perfect egg sandwich is six dollars and takes about four minutes, because it is a folded egg, butter and salt on an English muffin and there is nothing to wait for.

8 to 10 am: this is the crunch

This is our busiest stretch on a weekday and the one where people misjudge. Griddle plates are running eight to twelve minutes, which is fine if you are sitting down and frustrating if you are not.

The fast picks are any egg sandwich, anything out of the case, and drip coffee rather than an espresso drink. A latte at 8:20 is genuinely slower than a folded egg sandwich, because the espresso bar is four deep and the kitchen is not.

11 am to 1 pm: sandwiches, not bowls

Sandwiches are built to order and take about six minutes. Soup is instant: a cup of tomato and white cheddar is ladled and lidded in under a minute, and with a half sandwich it is twelve dollars for a real lunch.

Grain bowls take longer than people expect because components are assembled cold and dressed to order. Delicious, not fast. If you have got fifteen minutes, get one.

After 1:30 pm: the second bake

Cookies and bars go back in the oven at 1:30, so the afternoon case is not the morning's leftovers. A maple oat cookie at two o'clock is often better than it was at nine, because it is warm.

The espresso bar is also at its calmest between 1:30 and close, which is the right time to order a pour over and actually taste the rotating single origin.

Weekend brunch is not a ten minute plan

Saturday and Sunday from 9:45 to 11:15 the wait for a table at Church Street runs about thirty minutes. That is not a failure, it is simply a small dining room with a full kitchen.

If you have got somewhere to be, the bakery case and the espresso bar run on their own queue at the front and take the same three to six minutes they always do. Grab a cardamom knot and come back for the pancakes another day.