In a piece titled New York Is Finally Taking Its Coffee Seriously, the Times looks at the "new style coffee bars" that have opened here the last two years. "At places like Bluebird Coffee Shop in the East Village, the espresso is so plush and bright that it tastes sweet on its own," the article notes. "At Abraço in the East Village, you can get drip coffee brewed by the cup, not drawn from an urn."
The article goes on in great detail about fresh roasted beans and all that. Then! A listicle of the 30 best coffee joints in Manhattan and Brooklyn... and several of them can be found right around here. To the EV list!
ABRAÇO "There’s barely room enough for six standing adults, never mind the dozen or more who can crowd in during prime time. And yet in this cramped space the baristas turn out some of the city’s best cappuccinos and drip coffee."
BLUEBIRD COFFEE SHOP "So pleasant, it’s disarming — tiny and flooded with sunlight, it’s easy to sit and linger over one of the pastries baked here daily. But the coffee is exceptional. Katie Duris, one of the country’s most respected baristas, sets a high standard: the espresso is bright and lush, the cortado a sublime balance of coffee and steamed milk."
EVERYMAN ESPRESSO It’s little more than a handful of tables and a coffee counter in the lobby of the Classic Stage Company, an Off Broadway theater, but its owner, Sam Penix, is much admired by espresso-heads.
NINTH STREET ESPRESSO Each Ninth Street Espresso feels different, and yet the harried shoppers at the Chelsea Market, the parents with strollers across from Tompkins Square Park and the laptop crowd at the original Ninth Street location all enjoy uniformly excellent coffee. Last spring, the owner, Ken Nye, did the next best thing to roasting his own beans by creating the Alphabet City Blend with Intelligentsia Coffee and Tea."
OST CAFE "Excellent coffee, including a fine cappuccino. Most people here seem to nurse their drinks, a tacit rent for the comfy chairs and WiFi."
(There's also an interactive map!)
Image via.
Hey Grieve, you should do a story about these coffee shop's neighbors. They have to deal with CROWDING in their doorways and stoops thanks to the coffee shops. ABRACO, MUD CAFE and all of them! People moan about the bars, but these coffee shops are a crowding and traffic nuisance day and night!!!
ReplyDeleteDon't they run this same article every 6 months or so?
ReplyDeleteI hear you, anon. I suppose 311 is one route. People seem to effectively lodge complaints against bars this way... maybe the same thing can be done for noisy coffee shops???
ReplyDelete@Anon 9:28 and EV Grieve. Are you serious? Abraco closes at 4 and Mud closes at midnight and I never see crowding outdoors. These are your complaints? Ray’s creates more of a nuisance then these two businesses put together. I know they are relative new comers to the neighborhood but they are good citizens. If you don't like Mud and Abraco then you're just anti-business or anti new business.
ReplyDeleteHi Kurt,
ReplyDeleteI like Abraco's coffee, and they all seem very cool. I was just empathizing with anon — that if there is a continuous problem, 311 is one course of action, with a coffee place or bar. I have noticed a sign on the apartment building door next to Abraco asking people not to sit on the stoop or congregate in the doorway. I'm not sure who put that up. If there's not a problem with people sitting or congregating there, then why the need for a sign? Could just be a friendly reminder.
And there are plenty of new comers to the neighborhood that I like... As you suggest, you can be new and a good citizen.
Thanks for taking the time to clarify your comment for me. Yes, I've seen the sign on the building to the east of Abarco as well. I’m sure it's annoying to have a crowd in your doorway every time you leave your apartment and that's why the sign went up. I was just bristling against the claim that the crowding and traffic issue went on "all day and night". As I pointed out in my first post, Abraco closes at 4 pm.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous #1 is a douche.
ReplyDeleteSmall, quite, respectful independent businesses. are what these establishments are. You have a problem with these places, you really should get the fuck out of here.