Near the southern end of New York City’s wonderful High Line and opposite Chelsea Market, this was famed Californian roasters, Blue Bottle Coffee’s first Manhattan coffee shop. However, despite its proximity to the High Line, this shouldn’t be confused with Blue Bottle’s High Line Café, which is just a block away on the High Line itself (it also has seasonal opening hours; being a partly outdoor location, it’s currently closed, reopening in April 2016).

Back to the Chelsea branch, which isn’t far from fellow-roasters Intelligentsia and its coffee shop in the High Line Hotel. However, while that’s a very upmarket setting, Blue Bottle, situated in what was the loading dock of the Milk Building, is much more down-to-earth. Split over two levels with minimal seating, it still manages an impressive range of filter coffee to go with the usual espresso-based menu.

You can sit downstairs at one of two window bars, or outside on the pavement on one of two matching benches. You can also sit upstairs, where there’s a second counter, unless it’s being used for training courses (usually Saturday afternoons). This also used to host the famous Blue Bottle syphon bar from 11 until 2 on the weekends, but sadly this is no more.

You can read more of my thoughts after the gallery.

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Blue Bottle is on W 15^th Street, opposite Chelsea Market, and a just few steps from the High Line. There’s not a great deal to it, particularly when viewed from the street, from which vantage point it looks like a slightly larger version of Glasgow’s Laboratorio Espresso. It shares Laboratorio Espresso’s basic dimensions: long, thin and rather tall, although, somewhat ironically, despite being bigger (it’s longer and slightly deeper), Blue Bottle actually has fewer seats than Laboratorio Espresso. That said, this isn’t counting the upstairs section at the back (more of which later).

Like Laboratorio Espresso, the front of Blue Bottle is all glass, with a door in the centre. The layout is remarkably simple: there’s a large counter at the back, with the till directly ahead of you, flanked by the espresso machine on the left, and a large brew bar plus cake to the right. The only seating comes in the shape of a pair of three-person window-bars, one either side of the door.

Behind the counter is what looks like a large wooden box, running almost the entire length of the shop, with an arch in the middle that leads to a staff-only kitchen area. However, at the far right-hand end of the counter, a flight of stairs leads up to Blue Bottle’s second space. Above/behind the main counter, this is only slightly smaller than the downstairs, but managed to fit in more seating. During the week, it’s an additional seating area, but at weekends it’s a training area (sadly the syphon bar is no more). There’s also a door which gives access to Blue Bottle from the Milk Building.

This second space has its own counter on the left (facing the back of the building), which can seat up to six, along with a two-person bar at the top of stairs on the right. There used to be a single-group La Marzocco espresso machine up here, plus a bunch of other brewing kit, but these days I think it’s only used during training courses. It’s an interesting space which offers a respite from the busy downstairs.

Overall, it’s an interesting space/pair of spaces, but when the upstairs is only in use as seating, it can feel disconnected, while downstairs you have no option but to sit with your back to the counter (and everyone else) which I always feel is a little disconcerting. The abundance of windows means that it’s very bright inside and the high ceilings give it a great sense of space, although I found the music too loud. While there’s no Wifi, you can use the free Wifi from the Milk Building which comes nicely through the walls, particularly at the back.

Although tempted by the filter coffee (all hand-poured, no bulk-brew here), I wanted something milky, so had a cappuccino (no flat whites). Made with the seasonal Retrofit blend (only available in Blue Bottle’s New York cafés), it was very smooth and naturally sweet, the coffee combining with the sweetness of the milk. If all cappuccinos were like this, I could easily be converted…

I paired this with a brandy-poached apple buckle with walnut streusel (for UK readers, think apple crumble, only with cake for the body). This was truly excellent, with a crunchy crumble topping (the walnut streusel), and a lovely, fruit-packed cake (the apple buckle).  I could have easily eaten two. Or three…

December 2015: Blue Bottle was a runner-up for the 2015 Coffee Spot Best Cake Award.

February 2016: when I popped back into Blue Bottle to hand over its Best Cake Award from the 2015 Coffee Spot Awards, I learnt that the syphon bar is no more, although you can still sit upstairs if you wish.

April 2017: see what I thought of Blue Bottle in Japan with the Aoyama location in Tokyo.

September 2019: you can see what I made of another Tokyo Blue Bottle, this time the one in Nakameguro.

You can see what fellow coffee bloggers, Bean There At, made of Blue Bottle.

If you enjoyed this Coffee Spot, check out the rest of New York City’s speciality coffee scene with the Coffee Spot Guide to New York City.

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