Category Archives: New York City

Coffee Spots in New York City, including Brooklyn and Queens

Ninth Street Espresso (9th & 10th St)

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The window of Ninth Street Espresso, disconcertingly on 10th Street and Tompkins SquareNinth Street Espresso has been around since 2001, making it something of an established player in New York’s speciality coffee market compared to newcomers such as Pushcart Coffee where I’d started my day.  I tried two branches, the original on 9th Street in Alphabet City and the East Village branch just two blocks away on 10th Street/Tompkins Square.

In theory I should have liked Tompkins Square as much as I liked 9th Street. However, I didn’t. On such small things hang the status of a Coffee Spot, although in fairness to Tompkins Square, the reasons I didn’t get on with it were very much specific to that visit.

In both branches, the focus is firmly on the coffee, which is excellent, while what’s on offer is very typical for an American coffee shop. Although Tompkins Square has seating, it’s set up more for takeaway trade, while 9th Street is much more the place to linger for an hour or two. They’re a little off the beaten (tourist) track in the East Village/Alphabet City area, but if you happen to be in the vicinity, both branches are worth visiting.

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Gasoline Alley Coffee

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The Gasoline Alley Logo, crossed-espresso basketsNew York City’s Gasoline Alley is a curious place. It could easily BE an alley, providing a cut across between Lafayette and Mulberry streets, on which some enterprising soul has put doors at either end and a roof on top to turn it into a coffee shop. Disappointingly, it’s not, but the feeling that you are sitting in an alley is hard to shake.

What made Gasoline Alley for me was the coffee; it serves Intelligentsia, a brand which I’m familiar with from my many visits to Chicago and one which I really like. Of course, great beans don’t guarantee great coffee, but in Gasoline Alley’s case, the baristas use their La Marzocco espresso machine to get the very best out of Intelligentsia’s Black Cat seasonal espresso blend.

Gasoline Alley is part of the growing trend of coffee shops with strong links to cycling. It proudly announces this with a racing bike hanging above the counter and, as if to confirm the link, the Arc Racing Team stopped by for coffee while I was there, adding a certain frisson of excitement!

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Gimme! Coffee, Mott Street

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An espresso in a proper gimme! coffee cup, on the bench outside the Mott Street branch.Gimme! Coffee is both a roaster and a regional coffee shop chain with four branches in upstate New York, two in Brooklyn and the solitary branch in Manhattan on Mott Street. It’s been around since 2000, while the Manhattan outlet opened in 2008, making Gimme! Coffee a comparatively long-established player in the New York coffee scene (unless you compare it to somewhere like Caffé Roma!).

The Manhattan branch is essentially a takeaway place, although I got lucky with the weather and had a chance to sit outside while savouring my espresso. At a pinch, you could stand inside and drink your coffee, but when I tried that (while chatting to the staff) I found that I was constantly getting in the way of other customers.

For somewhere so small, Gimme! Coffee packs a lot in though, including bags of charm and character. As a result, instead of just being somewhere to grab a coffee to go, it’s established itself as a real asset to the neighbourhood. It’s the sort of place I’d make a point of going to if I lived in the area, even if it was only for a couple of minutes a day.

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I Am Coffee

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The I Am Coffee logo on St Mark's Place, New York CityNormally I do my research when trying a Coffee Spot for the first time, but every so often I walk past somewhere and that’s enough for me. So it was with I Am Coffee: I was actually en-route to another Coffee Spot when I saw it while walking down St Mark’s Place (in case you’re wondering, St Mark’s Place is what E 8thSt is called for the three blocks between 3rd Avenue and Tompkins Square; I thought only us Brits did that with our street names!).

The first thing to catch my eye was the sign: calling your coffee shop “I Am Coffee” is enough to get my attention any day. It’s a bit of a challenge, really. Choosing “I Am Coffee” means you either have a hell of a lot of front, or you really know about coffee. Fortunately, Giovanni, the man behind I Am Coffee, knows about coffee. I mean, he REALLY knows about coffee.

Standing in I Am Coffee and talking with Giovanni was the coffee highlight of my time in NYC on the recent trip and that’s not counting the coffee, or the place itself. It’s a must visit!

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Caffé Roma

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A mirror from the wall of Caffe Roma, New York City, with the slogan "Caffe Roma, Gelatic & Spumoni"Regular readers will know that I have a soft spot for old-fashioned Italian cafes and, in that respect, Caffé Roma fits the bill. It’s located firmly in the heart of New York’s Little Italy on the corner of Broome and Mulberry Streets. I started coming here a couple of years ago, drawn in by the offer of free wifi, but it soon became a favourite in its own right. The coffee is good, but the killer is the wonderful array of cakes.

Caffé Roma boasts the best cannoli in New York and the rest of the offerings are pretty good too. Everything is baked on the premises and if you can’t eat it all, you can take it away with you, courtesy of a massive takeaway counter…

Caffé Roma is a lovely place, established in 1891, with much of it looking as if it dates from that era, including the tiled floor. It’s the sort of place where I could happily sit for hours (helped by the long opening hours!). Little Italy has a bit of a reputation as a tourist trap, but Caffé Roma feels more genuine to me and seems very popular with both locals and tourists.

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Pushcart Coffee, East Broadway

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The eponymous pushcart outside Pushcart Coffee on East Broadway and ClintonStanding on the corner of Clinton Street and East Broadway, Pushcart Coffee is not, as the name might suggest, a coffee cart, but is, in fact, a lovely little coffee shop. Better still, it’s a couple of blocks from the Chinatown hotel I normally stay in when I’m in New York, which makes it a great first stop in the morning. In Pushcart’s defence, the three-wheeled cycle-powered cart which sits outside and gives the store its name, is in regular use, taking coffee to the people at events around New York.

Pushcart Coffee is rooted in its neighbourhood, using local produce where possible and baking much of it on the premises. It’s also in a lovely old building which used to be a butcher’s shop. It’s pretty small, but nonetheless manages a cosy, friendly atmosphere. However, the main focus is on the coffee and I have to say that I was impressed, particularly with Pushcart’s speciality, the cortado, which forms the perfect compliment for the Stumptown Coffee.

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