About Essentials Coffee Bar
Essentials Coffee Bar is a counter-service coffee stop inside Harrah's Cherokee Casino Resort at 777 Casino Dr. It is a convenience stop for hotel guests and casino visitors, built for a quick cup of coffee and something light to eat, and it makes sense as one when you are already on the property.
Where it fits in a Cherokee day
Cherokee is the North Carolina gateway to Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and the resort is a short drive from the Oconaluftee entrance on Newfound Gap Road. If you are staying at Harrah's, a coffee bar inside the building saves a detour on a morning when you want to be on the road early. The resort has its own parking lots.
The menu is the usual coffee-bar lineup: brewed coffee, espresso drinks and pastries or grab-and-go snacks. It is not a place to sit down to eggs and bacon. For a full breakfast, the resort has sit-down restaurants, and downtown Cherokee has several family-run diners within a few minutes' drive.
What to know before you go
Harrah's has reworked its food and beverage lineup in recent years. The resort lists a Starbucks in the hotel lobby, and its Gordon Ramsay Food Market was announced with a coffee bar of its own. Because the casino adjusts which counters are open by day and by season, call the resort at 828-497-8880 or look at the Caesars Entertainment dining pages before you plan around this particular counter. The coffee bar is not independently listed with posted hours, so treat it as a bonus stop and not a reason to drive over.
If it is closed or you want a different cup, the Starbucks in the hotel lobby and the cafes in the Ramsay food market are close by inside the same complex.
Before the park
The park's busiest trailheads and the Newfound Gap Road corridor fill early in summer and during the October color season. Coffee in hand by 7 a.m. is a realistic plan from a Cherokee base, and the drive up to Newfound Gap takes you through some of the best scenery in the park. Note that the Carlos Campbell Overlook on Newfound Gap Road is temporarily closed, and the National Park Service posts current road and trail closures on its conditions page.
Good to know
- Prices follow the single-dollar-sign tier of a typical coffee counter, though casino-resort prices can run a little higher than a stand-alone shop.
- Hotel guests can often get a cup without leaving the building, which is the main reason to choose this stop.
- For something more substantial, see the other Harrah's Cherokee restaurants linked on this page.
Good to know
- What kind of food does Essentials Coffee Bar serve?
- Coffee, pastries, light snacks.
