Wednesday, January 24, 2018

Champion Coffee taking over the Madman Espresso space on 14th Street



Madman Espresso has closed its location on 14th Street between First Avenue and Second Avenue. (H/T to EVG regular Pinch for the tip!)

There's now a sign hanging on the door titled Good Bye & Good Luck:

Madman Espresso adventure in the East Village/Gramercy area comes to an end. A nice lady bought our shop. They will renovate and reopen in a couple of weeks.

If you really can't live without us, please come see us at University Place and 10th Street or in one of our Midtown locations.

That "nice lady" is apparently Talitha Whidbee, who founded Champion Coffee in 2006 in Greenpoint.

Champion announced their new location(s) on Instagram back in December...


Madman Espresso opened on 14th Street, its first location, in January 2013. The University Place outpost arrived in 2015.

Champion Coffee was one of the first vendors at the Bowery Market, the year-round open-air food market at 348 Bowery and Great Jones, but they eventually pulled out for undisclosed reasons.

7 comments:

Cosmo said...

In other coffee news, Southern Cross on 5th St has been handing out fliers for free coffee recently. They make a good cup.

Anonymous said...

Southern Cross is always friendly, has a rewards program and has been adding to their food selection weekly. Of the 19 coffee places in my near vicinity, this is my favorite. Hope they get the support they need, I’d be disappointed to lose them.

Anonymous said...

Are there seriously 19 coffee places near you?
That's a lot.

Hey I just wanna say I met the original Madman.
When Madman first opened on E. 14th Street.
He's a young man, relatively new immigrant, from China if I recall. He came to NYC by way of Maryland. He said he is a devotee of the brown bean.
I was impressed.

Anonymous said...

sad that madman closed =( . I have been going to Saltwater which is two blocks away for my fix.. they have buy 6 get one free.

Anonymous said...

I used to make a pot of A&P Eight O'clock coffee in the early morning and put it into a thermos and take it to work with me. I would have thought that with rising rents some people would calculate the amount they spend at coffee shops and made alternate plans. Perhaps even put money saved into lottery tickets.

Anonymous said...

Best coffee is ninth st espresso. Don't get it twisted.

Sarah said...

Madman's location always seemed a little off to me...it was slightly off-putting to go down those stairs, and their hours were limited.