Cafe Grumpy and more: NYC coffee shops
January 30, 2016 5:36 PM Subscribe
28 Outstanding Coffee Shops in New York City - Levi Dalton and Marguerite Preston, The Eater, 2015 (with map)
The 10 best coffee shops in New York City - Liz Clayton, The Thrillist, 2015
10 Hottest Coffee Shops in NYC - Megan O. Steintrager, Zagat, 2015
The best coffee shops in New York - Time Out, 2014
101 Places to Find Great Coffee in New York - interactive map
And of course, there's an app for that.
The 10 best coffee shops in New York City - Liz Clayton, The Thrillist, 2015
10 Hottest Coffee Shops in NYC - Megan O. Steintrager, Zagat, 2015
The best coffee shops in New York - Time Out, 2014
101 Places to Find Great Coffee in New York - interactive map
And of course, there's an app for that.
Also worth noting the coffee shop by my office isn't on here, which is good. Their coffee is fine, but the shop often has a line of confused German tourists clogging the works in the mornings, so anything that keeps the snobs out would help get me caffeinated before work with less fuss.
posted by SansPoint at 6:00 PM on January 30, 2016
posted by SansPoint at 6:00 PM on January 30, 2016
It's interesting, I gave a couple of those lists a glace to see if they'd mention a couple places I used to like in the Village. They're not on the list; at first I thought it was maybe 'cause they got by more on character than great coffee. Turns out they're just gone.
But it does make me feel like New York really has become the mall of itself. A lot of the places they mention --- Stumptown, Joe the art of Coffee --- are hipster chains. You can get the same thing in a bunch of different cities. But then, all of them felt like that. Sleek and bright, natural wood + some cultivated industrial/art deco/bell epoque elements (choose one), a chalkboard, staff in beanies and glasses, artisinal organic pour over blah blah. Roast their own and print 5,000 words about fair trade beans on the side of the bag. This is the thing that is done, now. You do it New York and then you expand to Boston and Austin and Raleigh and Portland. Authenticity commodified, sealed in lucite. Sometimes you go to the city now and it just feels like everywhere, like you're just traveling through one airlocked hipster bourgeois scene. Like the tunnels in Houston. Like you could step on a moving sidewalk on West Broadway and step off in Silver Lake, like moving through terminals at the airport.
posted by Diablevert at 6:07 PM on January 30, 2016 [13 favorites]
But it does make me feel like New York really has become the mall of itself. A lot of the places they mention --- Stumptown, Joe the art of Coffee --- are hipster chains. You can get the same thing in a bunch of different cities. But then, all of them felt like that. Sleek and bright, natural wood + some cultivated industrial/art deco/bell epoque elements (choose one), a chalkboard, staff in beanies and glasses, artisinal organic pour over blah blah. Roast their own and print 5,000 words about fair trade beans on the side of the bag. This is the thing that is done, now. You do it New York and then you expand to Boston and Austin and Raleigh and Portland. Authenticity commodified, sealed in lucite. Sometimes you go to the city now and it just feels like everywhere, like you're just traveling through one airlocked hipster bourgeois scene. Like the tunnels in Houston. Like you could step on a moving sidewalk on West Broadway and step off in Silver Lake, like moving through terminals at the airport.
posted by Diablevert at 6:07 PM on January 30, 2016 [13 favorites]
So we're not going to talk about coffee? We are going to shit about artisanal organic pour overs and those fucking hipsters like its some original observation? It's just a hair more advanced than complaining about the ubiquity of Starbucks and "God damnit I simply won't call it a venti"!
posted by MisantropicPainforest at 6:39 PM on January 30, 2016 [3 favorites]
posted by MisantropicPainforest at 6:39 PM on January 30, 2016 [3 favorites]
Sorry. I wasn't trying to crap on these coffee shops. I patronize coffee shops like those and have nothing against them. I was more trying to express my enthusiasm for a khaki-colored, absurdly sweet cup of New York coffee on a New York morning on the Upper West Side. I really, really, really like coffee.
posted by escabeche at 6:50 PM on January 30, 2016 [3 favorites]
posted by escabeche at 6:50 PM on January 30, 2016 [3 favorites]
So we're not going to talk about coffee? We are going to shit about artisanal organic pour overs and those fucking hipsters like its some original observation? It's just a hair more advanced than complaining about the ubiquity of Starbucks and "God damnit I simply won't call it a venti"!
You can talk about whatever you want, man, it's a free country, and an open thread.
I looked over these various lists of New York's best coffee places and what struck me about them was how irrelevant to New York they seemed, how they shared a set of cultural signifiers but that set seemed entirely unrooted from the specific locale. Placeless places, that you could airlift and drop into an empty lot in a bunch of different cities without changing a thing, and without them seeming strange. It seemed to me to be sign of a larger change in the city, that what should be deemed best about it should not be unique to it, but rather to adhere to a set of values which is independent of it. A diminishment of cultural power, perhaps. The punchline to every third anecdote told about the city used to be shaking your head and saying, "...only in New York." These places aren't New York only at all.
That's what looking at the links made me think about. You probably had other thoughts. One of them may be that I'm a pretentious dick. That's the risk I take in choosing to comment. But if you had a point you wanted to share about whether these joints are good or others are better or coffee culture in general, go for it. I'm not trying to derail the thread. That's just what struck me about it.
posted by Diablevert at 7:47 PM on January 30, 2016 [7 favorites]
You can talk about whatever you want, man, it's a free country, and an open thread.
I looked over these various lists of New York's best coffee places and what struck me about them was how irrelevant to New York they seemed, how they shared a set of cultural signifiers but that set seemed entirely unrooted from the specific locale. Placeless places, that you could airlift and drop into an empty lot in a bunch of different cities without changing a thing, and without them seeming strange. It seemed to me to be sign of a larger change in the city, that what should be deemed best about it should not be unique to it, but rather to adhere to a set of values which is independent of it. A diminishment of cultural power, perhaps. The punchline to every third anecdote told about the city used to be shaking your head and saying, "...only in New York." These places aren't New York only at all.
That's what looking at the links made me think about. You probably had other thoughts. One of them may be that I'm a pretentious dick. That's the risk I take in choosing to comment. But if you had a point you wanted to share about whether these joints are good or others are better or coffee culture in general, go for it. I'm not trying to derail the thread. That's just what struck me about it.
posted by Diablevert at 7:47 PM on January 30, 2016 [7 favorites]
Well, what's there to say about coffee? I like coffee. I know good coffee when I drink it. Nine times out of ten, though, I just want a cup of something hot, black, and caffeinated so I can face the work day without wanting to jump out of the window. Which, since I work on the second floor, wouldn't be terribly effective.
Anyway, I'm still trying to figure out how and why German tourists flock to a nondescript coffee and pastry shop in Chelsea that only has 3.5 stars on Yelp. The coffee isn't anything to write home about, but it's warm, strong, and cheap.
posted by SansPoint at 7:52 PM on January 30, 2016 [2 favorites]
Anyway, I'm still trying to figure out how and why German tourists flock to a nondescript coffee and pastry shop in Chelsea that only has 3.5 stars on Yelp. The coffee isn't anything to write home about, but it's warm, strong, and cheap.
posted by SansPoint at 7:52 PM on January 30, 2016 [2 favorites]
tbh, I just go to La Columbe right now, and Dunkin in a pinch.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 8:10 PM on January 30, 2016
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 8:10 PM on January 30, 2016
The thing I miss 2nd most about NYC is the cheap deli coffee that comes with the world's only bagel.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 8:43 PM on January 30, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by Potomac Avenue at 8:43 PM on January 30, 2016 [1 favorite]
Fortunately I work next door to Joe's Pro. Most of the time I only order their basic drip (which is wonderful) or a cappuccino (which is seriously good). I do appreciate having this broader list, though.
posted by cleroy at 9:12 PM on January 30, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by cleroy at 9:12 PM on January 30, 2016 [1 favorite]
Man, as a pretty regular tourist, I don't know any of these places. I'm already quite happy with the ordinary black coffee from Zaro Bakery, or if I can aim my travels past Caffe Reggio, which is even better if I can score Christopher Walken's seat from Next Stop, Greenwich Village.
Tourists, man. They're the worst. (*cough*)
posted by Capt. Renault at 6:39 AM on January 31, 2016 [1 favorite]
Tourists, man. They're the worst. (*cough*)
posted by Capt. Renault at 6:39 AM on January 31, 2016 [1 favorite]
Diablevert: "It's interesting, I gave a couple of those lists a glace to see if they'd mention a couple places I used to like in the Village. They're not on the list; at first I thought it was maybe 'cause they got by more on character than great coffee. Turns out they're just gone. "
Well at least Porto Rico is still there. That's very good.
posted by Splunge at 10:00 AM on January 31, 2016 [1 favorite]
Well at least Porto Rico is still there. That's very good.
posted by Splunge at 10:00 AM on January 31, 2016 [1 favorite]
The trend I am most bemused by at overthinky NYC coffee places is the total rejection of decaf coffee. Some places have nothing decaffeinated at all; others will grudgingly make you a decaf espresso drink but have no decaf drip/pourover. I understand it from a coffee purism perspective but it seems like it must cut into their sales quite a bit. Some of us have strict caffeine cutoff times, but that doesn't mean we don't want an afternoon psychosomatic pick me up.
posted by yarrow at 10:28 AM on January 31, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by yarrow at 10:28 AM on January 31, 2016 [1 favorite]
NYC has great bars but for a long time (a lot longer than you'd expect) was truly a coffee wasteland. That's why most of the best coffee places on this list are hipster chains or as mentioned up thread don't have much of a connection to the city.
posted by chaz at 10:30 AM on January 31, 2016
posted by chaz at 10:30 AM on January 31, 2016
Some of them are home grown chains, though - Cafe Grumpy, Joe's (which has expanded a ton recently). Culture has two locations now. Even Porto Rico has multiple locations. I think the brutal economics of it all must play into that phenomenon. The other weird thing about NYC coffee is how many Australian proprietors there are - Grumpy, Culture, Hole in the Wall, Bluebird, Third Rail.
posted by yarrow at 10:44 AM on January 31, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by yarrow at 10:44 AM on January 31, 2016 [1 favorite]
Good thing the city is large enough to contain multitudes. If you don't like these places you never have to go into them, yet there's still plenty of other options for coffee.
posted by ultraviolet catastrophe at 5:11 AM on February 1, 2016
posted by ultraviolet catastrophe at 5:11 AM on February 1, 2016
Scoff all you want at the one-cup-at-a-time pourover phenomenon, but it's not hard to remember a time in this city when you couldn't get much other than the typical water-with-a-little-coffee-flavoring-in-it cup that's ladled out at places like Dunkin' Donuts. If it's a choice between that and coffee snobbery, I'll take the latter without having to think too hard about it, thanks.
posted by holborne at 8:48 AM on February 1, 2016
posted by holborne at 8:48 AM on February 1, 2016
Generally over-roasted.
I'm scratching my head here. At most of these places the beans will be very lightly roasted. That generally makes the flavors pop and also leaves more caffeine in the bean. Maybe everyone is confusing these hipster and pretenstious and overly complicated coffee places with Starbucks? That helps explain why the jokes haven't advanced in over a decade.
posted by MisantropicPainforest at 9:33 AM on February 1, 2016
I'm scratching my head here. At most of these places the beans will be very lightly roasted. That generally makes the flavors pop and also leaves more caffeine in the bean. Maybe everyone is confusing these hipster and pretenstious and overly complicated coffee places with Starbucks? That helps explain why the jokes haven't advanced in over a decade.
posted by MisantropicPainforest at 9:33 AM on February 1, 2016
The trend I am most bemused by at overthinky NYC coffee places is the total rejection of decaf coffee. Some places have nothing decaffeinated at all; others will grudgingly make you a decaf espresso drink but have no decaf drip/pourover. I understand it from a coffee purism perspective but it seems like it must cut into their sales quite a bit. Some of us have strict caffeine cutoff times, but that doesn't mean we don't want an afternoon psychosomatic pick me up.
The thing I find the funniest is that the people who like to be jerks about decaf say that they're doing that because they appreciate coffee goddamnit, but to me, wanting coffee without the hit is the thing that most shows that you appreciate coffee itself. Seems like those snobs just appreciate caffeine.
posted by R a c h e l at 9:10 AM on February 2, 2016 [1 favorite]
The thing I find the funniest is that the people who like to be jerks about decaf say that they're doing that because they appreciate coffee goddamnit, but to me, wanting coffee without the hit is the thing that most shows that you appreciate coffee itself. Seems like those snobs just appreciate caffeine.
posted by R a c h e l at 9:10 AM on February 2, 2016 [1 favorite]
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posted by escabeche at 5:43 PM on January 30, 2016 [1 favorite]