Too Much Coffee

Yes, we were supposed to fly on the morning of the 12th. On the 11th I was driving my youngest son from his laboratory in Belgium to Chiemsee south of Munich to visit his brother. We heard the news on radio and I called Karin so she could get things canceled. We got our money back for the flight and the hotel, but the horror of it all left us rather empty for awhile, as it did many people. We were undecided as to what to do for awhile, but in November we made a quick decision and flew to Las Vegas a day later.

I hate cities, but I love Manhattan. Funny that. It's unlike any other city I've ever visited.

try not to backpack in DC, fall in love with a pretty South African, and marry her.

The women in the US seem sadly immune to my charming accent

I tried a few:

Gimme Nolita, Mott Street: excellent (best we had while here, haven't tried Ninth Str yet). Very smooth, well made double espresso, great latte art. Good skill by the barista, and a good blend too.

Abraço, 7th St. Okay espresso.

BisCo Latte, 10th Ave (Hell's Kitchen). Meh. Illy espresso. The mocha came with a chocolate syrup that we didn't ask for. Avoid, unless you really really love biscotti (they were okay).

CupCake Café. Charming. The sturdy older guy behind the counter definitely seems to like coffee (he was all enthusiastic about an Alaskan roast he just received) but the execution was a bit sloppy.

Bump!

I tried a few recently as well.

Abraco, 7th street - single filter cones, Counter Culture Coffee (though strangely they were using a "house blend" with the filter coffees), amazing food, really small but it was a great place to stand, eat a lovely goats cheese vegie baguette and have a cappuccino. Jamie from Blue Bottle in SF owns it, and he really really wants to start roasting coffee locally soon.

Gimme! were so lovely, Mott street near Soho, excellent espresso and such lovely people. They roast coffee in Ithica, NY upstate.

Cafe Grumpy, I stayed really close to the Greenpoint cafe (Brooklyn) which was a huge space and offered coffee from Verve Coffee (Santa Cruz) and Novo espresso called Heartbreaker (a nice blend of earthy, ripe strawberries, dark chocolate and lemon rind). They have a space somewhere in Brooklyn where they're going to start roasting coffee for the shop soon.

Variety Cafe, on Graham Ave in Greenpoint - another local, stocking Stumptown and rocking sweet espresso, latte art, and French Press coffee. Again, lovely people and mos def worth a visit. These guys are planning to open a taqueria locally, should be f** awesome. They started doing breakfast on the weekends when I was there, bloody great egg rolls.

9th Street, in the East Village, they opened a new shop on 10th Street which was pure barista porn. It was so well laid out, functional and simple. Great coffee, Stumptown, and really, again, lovely people.

El Beit- on Bedford Ave, Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The place to get 49th Parallel coffee in NYC. I had some really lovely coffees here, but honestly some of the coffee tasted better back at the lab (two weeks older) than it did through the Clover at El Beit. They got a beautiful La Marzocco, and a new huge space out the back to smoke and read the newspaper (or blog about it with a MacBook, whatever). Worth visiting.

any updates anyone?

Might be worth having a look at these:

http://road2epiphany.wordpress.com/2008 ... manhattan/

http://road2epiphany.wordpress.com/2008 ... and-south/

A good friend of mine went over last summer - here's his thoughts...

http://theotherblackstuff.ie/?p=84

apprecited guys ....

there's a new place in New York which looks very pretty, called Kaffe 1668. Has anyone here been yet? There [http://www.flickr.com/photos/latteart/2946451279/in/photostream/]are photos here[x], and her blog twitchy.org should keep you up to date with more coffee goings on in New York.

These guys are really helpful to, they told me about a few cuppings around town, newyorkcoffeesociety@gmail.com.

And a guy called Daniel Humphries writes a blog about coffee in New York (and all that is associated with it!) http://danielhumphries.typepad.com/coffee/

Back from New York and overall the state of play is probably comparable to London with the amount of truly exceptional coffee houses. Now I didn’t get round every place but there are the usual multiples and then smaller local chain who from the ones I tried when needing a top up all served very drinkable filter which is a far cry from over here.?
Factors which help I presume are that they have massive turn over so brew time is usually very fresh and also maybe higher quality produce in the first place. Mostly take away as you would expect in such a huge metropolis but also the culture is very coffee orientated.
Then there were the serious guys who were incredibly serious about premium coffee, and the ones I had time to visit were.

OST www.ostcafenyc.com – new place opened barely 2 weeks as recommended by Jason ( nice one). Made sure I called on a Saturday as Daniel from http://danielhumphries.typepad.com/coffee/ mentioned he would be there. Intelligentsia blend extracted to perfection with faultless latte art in all the one I saw go out . this place rocks and will thrive I have no doubt.

9th Street ninthstreetespresso.com – 3 locations now my visit was to the original (I think) in the east village only a couple of blocks from OST.
They guys there were incredibly talented friendly baristas who served me the best espresso while I was there. The place oozes atmosphere and there must have been 5 different nationalities inside chatting away which added to the cosmopolitan feel. All said it’s the coffee that’s important and even brought back a pack of Stump town offering to play with myself.

Grumpy café http://www.cafegrumpy.com/ had a delicious clover Yirgacheffee but didn’t see the Panama which I regretted. Had an espresso which was good and bought a bag back also to play with. BTW £10 for a half pound HOLY pap. They know how to charge those new Yorkers.!!

Over all these are all really great places with gifted staff but 9th Street is a no brainer don’t you dare miss, if you land in that city.

Overall cant recall having an awful coffee which I cant say about her in the UK,

Super news, Barry! I have a weak spot for NY, always thought I would like to live there for a few months (not longer, I'm a country bumpkin even though I grew up in Chicago). The coffee scene in NY has completely grown up in the last 10 years. That's great. Thanks for the news and tips.

a good article about coffee in New York by Liz Clayton:

http://www.ediblemanhattan.com/content/ ... dswell.htm