The great New York City coffee hunt!
13 Jun 2011
I realise it was naive of me but it never occurred to me that there would be good coffee in America. From what I’d been told, I didn’t even think of it as an option. But I was proved wrong. So very wrong. Coming across as a veritable treasure map, this amazing map was drawn by the very talented and lovely LeeAnne, a friend who I met through my New York-dwelling pal Robyn.
Too Cute!
Incidentally LeeAnne also drew this adorable sketch of the three of us as a sandwich.
We had a great time bringing out the coffee map at any given moment during our trip, checking to see if we were near one of the listed venues, treating every cup as a prize, like black gold. It seemed to capture everyone’s imagination. We had people clambering for photos of it for their own reference. A nice guy we met in the subway one late evening even drew us a map of his own recommendation.
We didn’t make to every place on the map, but we tried damn hard. And of the one’s we visited, I found them all to be amazing with one exception – those are pretty good odds! Here’s photo evidence of our efforts.
Bluebird Coffee Shop
Bluebird was our first stop for coffee, and my surprise at how fabulous it was led to LeeAnne’s inspiration for drawing the coffee map. The latte I had was good. It was very good! Are there more places like this? And so our journey began.
Latte
Bluebird Coffee Shop
72 East 1st St.
New York, New York 10003
Abraço
It was a hot day when we visited Abraço. A tiny hole in the wall kind of place, their ice latte was just the thing to cool me down and pep me up for a hot day in New York. Great olive oil cake too!
STRONG ice coffee on a HOT day
Cappucino
Abraço's famous olive oil cake
Abraço
86 East 7th Street
Manhattan, New York 10003
Blue Bottle Coffee
Blue Bottle, hailing from San Francisco was fun and funky, and in the heart of hipsterville Williamsburg. Drip brewed coffee was one of the specialities here.
Blue Bottle, Berry St, Brooklyn
Drip brewing
Display filters
Blend (Three Africans) drip coffee au lait
New Orleans Ice Coffee
Blue Bottle Coffee
160 Berry Street
Brooklyn
New York
OST Cafe
OST was very chic with a laid back feel. Cortados were the thing to drink here.
Cortado
OST Cafe
441 East 12th Street
New York, NY 10009
Ninth Street Espresso
Sadly Ninth Street Espresso managed to produce a rather disappointing coffee which was no where near the standards set by the previous cafes. Flavourless and overly milky, my latte seemed on par with something from Starbucks (which I don’t rate at all). I wonder if they were just having an off day.
Latte and Cappucino
Ninth Street Espresso
Tompkins Square
341 East 10th St. (Between Ave A & B)
New York
Teado
One of these things is not like the other, one of these things is not quite the same! Teado was LeeAnne’s bubble tea recommendation, and made a fab little spot to visit for a post dinner tea after an awesome dinner at Congee in Chinatown. I’m not usually a fan of bubble tea, but after visiting this place I realise I’m just not a fan of less than fantastic bubble tea.
Cute decor
Passionfruit green tea with aloe vera
Teado
145 Hester St
Store D
(between Chrystie St & Bowery)
New York, NY 10002
So we made it to 6 out of 11 cafes in the end. Not a bad result in the time that we had, but more than enough to realise that New York certainly has a thriving coffee culture, perhaps more so than London, perhaps not as much as New Zealand/Australia. But it just goes to show that there are places to go, if you are in the know!
Coffee Models
As a side note I realised just how popular the coffee culture was when we were sitting outside the new location of Momofuku Milk Bar (they’d just moved across the road) eating croissants, when a friendly photographer wandered by and snapped a photo of us sitting there for the Stumptown Coffee Roasters Facebook page.
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