Friday, May 27, 2016

The 75-cent coffee at Subway

The other day, while walking by the Subway (sandwich shop) on First Avenue between Sixth Street and Seventh Street, I noticed their homemade sign for 75-cent coffee...



I'm not sure how new the sign is. But it was new to me. At 75 cents, the coffee was as inexpensive as I've seen it around here. (Ray's sells his for $1; Ink on A offers it for $1.25. I'm sure there are other low prices, but they're not on my radar.)

And does this Subway really serve 75-cent coffee in heart-shaped mugs like on a sign? What does 75-cent coffee at a Subway taste like?

I went inside to find out. I was a little surprised to find five people in line. (It wasn't even prime power lunch time.) Had I noticed the line, I would have left to return another time. However, I was already inside the door. And the smell of the bread had already permeated every fiber of my clothing.

I wasn't sure if I was supposed to line up along the counter where the Subwayer was making sandwiches. So I just stood at the register. The worker glanced in my direction every so often, perhaps as a way to say that I was breaking Subway line protocol. And he was busy melting cheese on a Meatball Marinara 12 inch in the toaster.

Anyway, he eventually took my order. I asked for the coffee. He handed me an empty 12-ounce Subway cup for the coffee station ... as well as a container of half-and-half creamers. (Why not keep these by the coffee station? Theft problem?) He seemed a little harried and humorless to quiz about the lack of a heart-shaped mug like on the sign on the window.


[You owe me .75 cents]

As for the coffee, it was lukewarm and tasted stale.

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

In my estimation, the taste of coffee increases and the price decreases. Free coffee tastes the best, expensive coffee tastes least best.

Anonymous said...

Macdonalds, 1.09 including tax or if you are old like me .89 with senior discount. Alway "not bad"

good to the last drop said...

If this was served in a heart-shaped mug with the foam art and all and/or at a any of the coffee-shops around the EV and charge $4+ for it, and have people line-up for it that snakes around the corner and have a security call your name when it's your turn, and hire the same PR folks as the Biscuit Boys did and have a whole page feature -- of how people are crying over a spilled coffee and how their girlfriends would lick it up of off the floor -- in Wall Street Journal, New York Post, Gothamshit,... then people would eat... I mean,... drink this up.

And one stands on line in New York.

And it's Subwayologist or subologist or herologist. EV needs more of these than a urologists or pathologists or gastroenterologists.

Yeah, haven't had my cawfee yet.

Anonymous said...

One could make coffee at home too if cost is an issue.

Anonymous said...

Now this is the hard-hitting reporting I keep coming back to EV Grieve for.

I usually make mine at home, but sometimes there's something satisfying about a greasy $1 bodega cup.

dmbream said...

And it's exactly this kind of pithy shoe leather journalism that makes E.V. Grieve The Best Damn Neighborhood Blog This Side Of The Mississippi™ year after year!

:-D

Well done, sir.

EV Grieve said...

Ha. Thanks dmbream!

I would not have stopped without the heart-shaped mug signage!

DrGecko said...

Grieve, you're a sucker for advertising, and more power to you. That's what makes American great!

Laura Goggin Photography said...

Every time I walk by there, the place is empty. I'm kinda shocked to hear there was a line.

Anyway, it looks like left-handers would do ok drinking out of those heart-shaped mugs, but right-handers not so much.

Scuba Diva said...

Porto Rico in the Essex Street Market will refill your cup or mug for 75¢; the one on St. Mark's usually charges a dollar.

The unbeatable deal here is you can get a refill of cold-brew (with or without ice) for a dollar at the St. Mark's location, seventy-five at the Essex Street location. (Don't ask me why the price discrepancy; I don't know.)

Anonymous said...

@Scuba Diva: The price is right, but how much caffeine can one person consume in that short a time? If I've had a coffee, I don't need a refill right away.

Anonymous said...

Subway? Ew. Sorry but I would not give them even 75 cents.

Makeout said...

Being left handed I actually use a right landed mug. My left holds my smoke. The only problem is you can't see the logo on the cup.